


Dive into a Land Unknown

by Sleepyblue_Kitzune



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Devil May Cry, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Naruto, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types, Tales of Xillia, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, BAMF Jane Foster (Marvel), Dark, Developing Friendships, F/M, Gen, Good Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, Great Spirit Pain, Half Elf-Half Spirit Sasori, Half Human-Half Spirit Sakura, Horror, Humor, Jane Foster Loves Science (Marvel), Jane Foster is a Hybrid, Jane has a Demon Form, Jane's Making All Kinds of Friends in Here, Kidnapping, Light Drama, Light Exploration, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Mentions of Other Characters and Organizations, Mentions of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Freeform, Mystery, Nearly Everyone is a Hot Mess in Here, Original Character Death(s), Other, Other Fandoms Not Mentioned in Tags, Sakura and Sasori Are Cousins, Some People Are Just Tired of Loki's Shit, There's Some B.O.W.s in Here, Trapped in a dungeon, World Hopping, and A Mansion too, and it's called Devil Mode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:20:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 71,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24647086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleepyblue_Kitzune/pseuds/Sleepyblue_Kitzune
Summary: What started out as a simple trip to Mystic Ruins to meet up with Vergil turned into something more as Jane and three others find themselves thrown in a world not their own. Separated from those who will soon become her friends, Jane takes the chance to explore this new world while searching for them. What she doesn’t realize is that danger’s just up ahead, lying and waiting for her and the others. What kind of horrors will they run into? And will she and the others ever make it back home in one piece?
Relationships: Jane Foster & Everyone, Jane Foster & Loki, Jane Foster & Vergil, Jane Foster/Loki, Lady & Vergil (Devil May Cry), Loki & Tony Stark
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

The evening was relatively late, quiet, and cold—a little too cold in fact for anyone one to be out and exploring the area. And while the scenery was nice to look at, with the sunset shining the last of its warm ray of lights down on the grassy plateau and train station before making its routinely descent below the horizon, it wouldn’t do good for those lingering about —such as a group of three human teenagers sitting down on a bench nearby— in the wooden building to even think about traveling. 

Well, at least not at this time of the day since it was all coming to an end. 

They needed to find shelter and fast before it started to get dark. But there was nothing noteworthy of interest they spotted around them. 

No inns...

...And no other buildings around. 

Hell, there wasn’t any kind of shelter in the vicinity aside from the large house, which was surrounded by five palm trees and a workshop building that was being powered by a generator sitting in a fountain close to it, they could see up in the distance. 

And it was all sitting right on top of a large steep cliff next to another cliff that had a wooden railing around it near the ocean. 

But the chances of whoever stayed in that home or the workshop connected to it had enough room to house any one of them were about as slim to none.

Besides, that cliff area was hardly safe in their eyes seeing as someone could easily trip or walk off the edge of it—if they’re not too careful, and land on the hard ground below...

...Or fall over the wooden railing on the second cliffside and tumble straight into the water down below.

So no, they weren’t going to take their chances.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

“Next stop, Mystic Ruins! If you would like to get off at this stop, push the button and patiently wait in your seats until we’ve reached our destination!” an automated voice from the intercom spoke.

Tired golden brown eyes looked up from their phone at the sound of a **_ding_ ** from somewhere behind her and out the window, sighing in pure content when she took one glance at the midnight blue sky and saw a cluster of stars twinkling in the light that shone down on the beautiful ocean water surrounding the jungle swampland below—

**_PEEP!_ **

**_CHIRRUP!_ **

‘ _Oh! Do I hear flickies?_ ’ at the sound of faint chirping, Jane turned her attention away from the water and looked further up into the sky. ‘ _Yeah! There they are!_ ’

A smile appeared on her face, her eyes shining amber in the light reflecting off the ocean as she took in the flock of colorful bird-like creatures —that were native to this side of the world— flying high in the air.

‘ _It’s good to be back here on the island again. I haven’t stepped foot in this place for years. I honestly forgot how long it took to get here too._ ’

Speaking of which, the ride from the city of Station Square to Mystic Ruins wasn’t that bad by all means. It just took a while to get here, that's all. Four hours in total in fact! And since the train she was one travels nearly all across the world, making frequent stops here and there at different locations for various reasons, there were bound to be some delays getting here. 

Still, this was nothing compared to the previous ride she had to take in order to get to the big city —that was famous for its near resemblance of New York and a few others along with _a certain group of anthropomorphic heroes_ who lived there— from home, which almost took up half the day.

Nonetheless, the young woman felt relieved that she finally made it here before the day ended.

"It’s a good thing I didn’t fall asleep...” Jane mumbled to herself before putting her phone away. Then she started to pull her stuff, such as her notebook, writing utensils, and laptop, off the table in front of her and put it back inside of the bag sitting next to her. ‘ _Or else I totally would’ve missed my stop, and therefore, missed my meeting with my friend. My god, that would’ve been embarrassing!_ ’ she finished in her mind, fully aware of the few people left on the train getting up from their seats right as it stopped in front of the station.

After checking to make sure she had everything and confirming it, the young woman got up and joined the others waiting by the door. 

**_WHOOSH!_ **

They all walked out and went their separate ways except for Jane, who stopped near the stairs and took a moment to pull her bag over her shoulders all while stretching her legs and arms, completely ignoring the group she could spot snoozing away on the ground in their sleeping bags under the station’s wooden building and stone bridge below her.

**_POP!_ **

**_POP—_ **

**_CRACK!_ **

A wince escaped from her lips at the ungodly sounds her joints made as they moved back in place.

‘ _Not gonna lie...That one actually hurt a bit._ ’ 

She continued stretching for the next five minutes or so, working all the kinks out until there were none left. And once she did, the young woman stopped. ‘ _That should do it!_ ’ satisfied that she got the blood pumping and flowing through all four of her limbs again, Jane started making her way down the wooden steps carefully.

‘ _Time to go see what this guy wants._ ’ 

Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t going to happen because the minute she reached the bottom and walked past the building, a small shiver crawled up her spine. 

The young woman stopped in her tracks. ‘ _What is this strange feeling I’m getting now?_ ’ her senses were going wild, telling her that there was some kind of danger around. 

‘ _Hmm…_ ’ her eyes darted around, checking everything in sight for any signs of someone or something lurking in the area. She did this a few more times, and when nothing showed up, Jane felt relieved.

However, that didn’t stop her from feeling a bit disappointed as strange as that sounded.

‘ _Weird...I don’t sense anything around me that’s even remotely—_ ’

**_WHIRR!_ **

Nevermind.

**_WHIRR!_ **

‘ _Where?—_ ’

**_BZZPT!_ **

Jane froze when she saw a beam of energy heading straight towards her, and the young woman immediately reacted. 

**_BOOM!_ **

A cloud of smoke and dirt rose up in the air when the attack landed, which startled the sleeping group nearby awake. They quickly shot up from their sleeping bags and turned their attention to the source of the sound only to find a dissipating smoke in front of them. “Wha…?” a shocked yet excited gasp left their mouths at the flash of blue shining through the smoke cloud, and just when the three thought they spotted the legendary blue blur himself, the cloud completely disappeared and so did their hopes.

“Hey, that’s not Sonic.”

Before their very eyes, a young woman in her early thirties with waist length dark brown-red tipped hair and honey blonde side swept bangs kneeled behind a bluish-white barrier in front of them, facing their direction. She had on a black and white hooded vest with red jewels on top of an open sleeveless purple and blue lined tail-coat jacket with white and sky blue accents on it. Underneath that, she wore a sleeveless black and white lined v-neck tunic with a single yellow stripe on each shoulder and had a slit running down the length of the shirt, which partially revealed her stomach. Then, on the lower half of her body, she wore some stylized black and white outer pants that were cut out in the crotch area to reveal the stitched-in dark blue inner ones underneath, and had a yellow half-star symbol on each side of the outer pants that were tucked into some purple and black-blue lined knee high boots that had silver rings and sky blue flames on them with white tongues and yellow accents surrounding the silver soles of her footwear.

“Well sorry to disappoint you kids…” she said to them as she slowly got to her feet and opened her eyes. “But I’m not your blue hedgehog hero. I mean, I don’t even have the right looks or his blinding fast speed to even be him,” she finished in good humor, her golden brown eyes sparkling with concealed mirth before they narrowed into slits, and the young woman turned around to face whatever adversary attacked her. 

“Oh…” the three echoed, a bit stumped.

“However…” six items being a pair of puffy dark blue upper arm bands with white cuffs, a pair of silver and black-sky blue striped arm guards, a pair of black and white-red jeweled gloves, a black and white-yellow striped leather strap, a white utility belt featuring a silver star emblem decorated with a black crescent moon on it, and a pair of large gold rings appeared out of nowhere in front of the mysterious woman to their amazement. “I would advise you three to take cover somewhere or get to safety at the top of this station. I wouldn’t want any of you to get in the way and get hurt because of me,” she put the accessories on as she said this.

**_WHIRR! WHIRRR! WHIRRRRRRRR—_ **

A flash of something metallic appeared to the woman’s left and fired another beam at her before disappearing. Though it appeared to be futile seeing as the attack completely bounced off the barrier and into another direction, hitting a tree somewhere behind her and the teenagers.

Then without a word, she retaliated with her own move.

“Are you going to be alright, Miss?” one of them, an older boy with curly hair, asked and looked on with wide eyes as something metallic slammed into the ground. To his shock, a group of short egg-shaped orange and black-yellow humanoid robots materialized in the clearing, all face down. It was as if something was holding them in place.

“Whoa! That’s so cool!” his friend, a young girl with long wavy hair, mumbled in awe. 

“Yeah! Like a ninjutsu attack from Naruto or something...” his friend, another boy but younger and with short hair, mumbled in agreement.

Above the robots, there was some type of distortion in the air, blackish-white in color and crackling with power that radiated off the woman’s body and outstretched hand in waves—immense power that the group of three could feel around them, but it wasn’t affecting them at all. 

Just the robots in front of them.

Weird…

“Yes, I'm fine,” the woman finally answered and quickly looked back at the three. “Go on now! Hide!” she ordered in a firm voice.

The three didn’t need to be told twice. 

“Okay!” they quickly got to their feet, almost tripping over their sleeping bags in the process, and grabbed their stuff before hightailing it out of there and up the stairs.

With them now out of sight, Jane turned her eyes back on the robots lying helplessly at her feet and whirring up a storm. 

“Now to deal with you...Egg Pawns,” she mused with a tilt of her head, wondering why in the world Team Sonic’s number one enemy robots were here.

‘ _That means Dr. Eggman or whatever he calls himself is not too far away from here._ ’

**_WHIRR!_ **

Still...the fact that these robots managed to hide themselves with some type of cloaking ability, sneak up on her without her even noticing a thing until they finally revealed themselves, and attack her was pretty impressive. 

‘ _Looks like the madman upgraded his little army a bit._ ’

The young woman dropped the barrier and her hold she had on the robots, allowing them to get up off the ground.

Blue eyes glared intently at her, and with a series of beeps mixed in with whirrs full of anger, they all charged at the young woman.

“An arte that pierces foes with spires of rock from the earth below. Grave!”

Several rock spikes erupted beneath their feet and impaled them, blowing up the whole army before they could even reach Jane.

‘ _Too bad he couldn’t make them stronger. God, they’re so weak that I bet even Darcy could defeat them. And she’s not even a warrior like me, Lambert, all of my cousins, and the others!_ ’ the young woman shook her head, watching the spikes disappear seconds later before turning her attention elsewhere. ‘ _Hmm...speaking of my cousins, Dante did mention earlier today that Chris and Claire will at least be in town tomorrow. Just for a brief visit though,_ ’ a smile appeared on her face as she thought about the BSAA member and TerraSave member. ‘ _It’s been so long since I’ve seen those two specifically, not since I graduated from the university and got my PhD. It’ll be nice to catch up with them again._ ’

Just thinking about the two put her in a good mood. She loved the Redfield siblings dearly and used to go over their house all the time when she was a pre-teen. She also used to go over her Aunt Colleen and Uncle Sam’s house and visit them, Matt, and Katie too whenever she got the chance. But as they all got older, moved to different states, and moved on with their lives, visits became far and few in-between.

Now that Chris and Claire had some time before their next mission, the two were finally coming over to visit her and Lambert in London.

‘ _Hopefully I should be back home by the time they get there,_ ’ Jane said as she started walking again.

“ **Never in my life I thought I’d see a Midgardian use a power resembling that of magic…** ” her eyes grew the size of dinner plates in surprise at the sudden appearance of a new voice coming from behind her. “ **I must say, that was an impressive performance you displayed there, Dr. Foster.** ”

The young woman stopped and whirled around to find the owner of the voice, but there was nothing there.

“ **Hmm, yes, I do believe there is more to you than what I’m seeing here…more than what my oaf of a brother described of you it seems.** ”

Confused, she turned back around.

...And still spotted nothing.

“ **I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s there.** ”

Thoroughly fed up now at the unknown presence she couldn’t see or sense, she finally called out to the voice.

“Alright, enough with the games! Come out whoever you are and show yourself! I’m not afraid to use my spirit artes against you!”

“ **My, my, aren't you a brave and feisty one? I like that...** ” her eyes narrowed at the somewhat mocking tone in the thing’s voice. “ **Ah, that look in your eyes...I see you’re not enjoying our little talk. You’re no fun at all, Dr. Foster.** ”

“Fun? I don’t see what’s so fun about this! The only thing you’re doing is pissing me off with this hiding game of yours, and I don’t like it one bit!”

“ **Oh that’s a shame to hear.** ”

Jane ignored the feigned sadness in the hidden stranger’s voice. “Now come out and show yourself! I will not ask you again for a third time!”

“ **So eager to see me I see...The feeling’s mutual, Dr. Foster, but I’m afraid that our little meeting will have to wait for another day. Preferably, when I’m free of this wretched place.** ”

“What the hell are you talking about?!—” spotting something out of the corner of her eye, like a flash of green—or was that black? She didn’t know, Jane turned around with an outstretched hand and dropped it at the sight of nothing.

Again…

A tick mark appeared near her brow while she fumed on the inside.

“ **Nothing that concerns a human like you.** ”

“You have no idea how much I want to kick your cowardly ass right now,” she growled in a low, dangerous voice.

“ **I will ignore that insult of yours for now…** ” Jane’s brows furrowed in confusion, noticing how faint the mysterious voice was getting now. “ **But it is getting late, and I’m sure you have other things to do or whatever it is that you mortals do at night before turning in, so I’ll leave you be...for now.** ”

“What—”

“ **Until next time...Jane Foster.** ”

The clearing became silent soon after that. And Jane was left in a sour mood. 

‘ _How the hell did that asshole even know my name?_ ’

It did no good for her to stay angry, especially at someone who wasn’t even there to begin with, so the young woman closed her eyes and took a few moments to calm herself down.

“Get a hold of yourself girl! Don’t let their words get the best of you,” Jane quietly gave herself a pep talk then took a few small deep breaths. “Yes...that’s it.”

The young scientist did this a few times, slowly feeling the anger she felt earlier wash away little by little until it was no more. Then she opened her eyes and looked around the area once more before letting out a groan.

‘ _Either I’m starting to go crazy from hearing things or I just have the worst luck in the world to be teased and, somehow, stalked by a voice that sounded awfully like that war criminal who almost destroyed New York two years ago, and who just so happens to be Thor’s little brother as well. My god, what has my life come to now? I don’t even know how I should feel about this!_ ’

Jane sighed and looked over her shoulder at the train station building, her eyes searching for the three kids she sent off earlier, but it seems like they weren’t up there at all. Weird. Maybe the train came by and picked them up while she was preoccupied with things down here?

‘ _Whatever...I don’t have time for this or that Loki guy! I need to get a move on and meet up with my friend before he gets fed with my tardiness and leave—_ ’

**_BOOM!_ **

“What was that?” she turned and faced the direction of where the explosion came from. “Oh no...” her eyes went wide at the sight of a giant silhouette in the shape of a robot standing near the waterfall drop behind a cloud of black smoke, and firing its attacks downward.

Jane became confused at that until she heard three shouting voices, one that she recognized immediately, followed by an annoying cackle of evil laughter—that she heard plenty of times before on TV. 

‘ _Tails? What is he doing here—wait, nevermind, dumb question. Of course he'd be here since he lives on this island! But the important question right now is...why is Dr. Eggman attacking him and two other people with him?_ ’

**_BOOM!_ **

Deciding to think about that later, Jane ran towards the battle taking place up ahead.

‘ _Guess my meeting will have to wait until Eggman’s been taken care of._ ’

**xXXXXXXXXx**

In another area deep within Mystic Ruins, a tall lone figure in blue with swept back white hair sat comfortably on top of a wide mountain ledge, methodically swinging his legs back and forth over the edge without a care in the world. He looked past the trees and peered into the vast darkness of the maze-like jungle below, his icy blue colored eyes glowing yellow under the light of the fireflies. And they buzzed ever so softly around him as he stared down his nose at the many critters running through the grass.

Even with the lack of excitement, the young man felt content just sitting there, watching the creatures chase each other either on the ground or through the trees. 

He didn’t mind the silence one bit.

In fact, the chill of the night, the stars, the scenery and sounds of mother nature surrounding him from every side—it all felt like a balm to his soul. And it soothed the beast—his emotions within him, specifically the irritation and agitation he felt the day before.

Though it was curious to note that he couldn’t even remember why he’d been irritated in the first place. He should’ve, but he didn’t. 

It must have been something so trivial that he thought wasn’t worth it, the young man mused as he turned his bored gaze onto the pyramid right in the middle of the jungle.

Despite the urge to want to go down there and explore it, he was going to sit here for a bit and relax. After all, it was not like he was in a hurry or anything. He still had some time to kill before he and his friend’s appointment starts...

...If she ever shows up, that is.

He resisted the urge to sigh or groan—he was too dignified for that after all, and just pinched the bridge of his nose instead.

‘ _I might as well do something productive to pass the time. It’ll make the waiting less painful that way._ ’

Knowing it’ll be some time before his friend gets here, if she doesn’t get lost or distracted by something on the way to the cave, he pulled out a worn brown and gold leather book with the letter V etched onto it from within his coat, cracked it open, and began to read.

“That woman better have a good excuse for making me wait this long once she gets here, otherwise…” he trailed off cryptically then soon became lost within his thoughts.

And before he knew it, ten minutes flew by... 

With the majority of his attention focused on yet divided between keeping a lookout for any enemies nearby and reading the words etched into the pages of his book, the young man didn’t realize the area around him had changed until a firefly flew in front of his face.

He blinked and raised his head up. Then his features twisted into a frown when he took notice of the white fog in front of him. 

‘ _What the…?_ ’ the young spiky haired man calmly stood up, closing his book and stashing it away as he did so. After that, he picked up his weapon —that had been laying next to him— off the ground and looked around him. 

The fog was so dense, so thick, and massive in size that it nearly swallowed up the whole jungle—save for the few moss covered trees and glowing blue river down below he can still spot through the hazy cloud with his enhanced vision.

‘ _When did this fog roll in?_ ’

Suddenly, he heard an ominous howl. And the young man swiftly drew his sword, the Yamato, from its sheath. ‘ _There’s something here…_ ’ his blue eyes combed through the area, looking for any signs of movement, daring them to come out and face him.

He got his wish seconds later.

**_RWAAAAAAAAR!!!_ **

In mere milliseconds—and simply way too fast for the human eye to see, his blade sang as he pivoted and swung at a ninety degree angle, immediately connecting Yamato with something solid.

A splatter of blood followed by a cry of pain was heard, which put a victorious smile on the spiky haired man’s face. However, that quickly dropped the moment a huge shadow with red eyes jumped back and over the ledge of the mountain, straight into the jungle below.

‘ _Oh?_ ’ he looked down into the abyss with interest in his eyes, trying to spot the creature that miraculously survived his deadly attack.

And there weren't many who did.

How curious...

‘ _The prey who’s never been prey before until this day has now become the hunter._ ’

Thoroughly motivated by this situation at hand here, the young man sheathed his sword and leaped down into the jungle after the mysterious, red-eyed shadow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting from this chapter onward, there will be a few skits and victory quotes scattered throughout the fic. This is not only for world-building purposes, but it is to give the fic more life I guess you can say. 
> 
> Plus, I wanted to make this feel a little "Tales of" in some sense considering they're pretty big for this sort of thing.
> 
> Now with that out of the way, hope you enjoy the chapter!

Jane has experienced many odd things in her life, in her time as a warrior…and as a scientist. It couldn’t be avoided really. One doesn’t simply go through life without running into a few oddities—or setbacks, here and there, regardless of their wishes. It just happens.

…Unless you’re someone like her who has an extreme case of bad luck with shit being tossed at you left and right. And boy it never fails to deliver. She can always count on mother nature or something ridiculous to fuck up her day and ruin whatever shred of happiness or semblance of peace she had earlier. Though, for some ungodly reason, her bad luck always seems to rear its ugly head when she least expects it! No warning whatsoever. It was nothing new at this point…but for the love of god, can a poor little ole struggling astrophysicist, who-is-almost-broke-but-at-the-same-time-not-broke-and-can-kick-the-asses-of-the-avengers-if-she-tried-to, like her get a heads up? Or some kind of sign maybe? Is that too much to ask for?!

“Miss…?” 

‘ _Uggghh…’_

Why does the world feel like it's spinning? Why in the world is her body aching all over? And why in the flying fuck does her head feel like its about to split open and show its goodies to the whole world? It’s almost as if someone had taken a hammer and slammed it against her noggin…repeatedly.

“—is…Miss! A…re…y…ou…a..alright…?”

She slowly cracked her eyes halfway open—when did she ever close them?, and immediately became acquainted with a small group of crouched fuzzy figures in the colors of orange, white, and black leaning over her prone wet figure.

…Wait? What was she doing on the ground, soaked to the bone, in the first place? She doesn’t remember lying down or taking a dip in the lake. The last thing she remembered was her running to the battlefield…

“M…iss…! C…a…n y…ou…h…ear…me?”

…And then nothing…Wow, thanks brain!

“H…ey…umm…”

‘ _…Soooo loud, and—oh! Oh, oh god!_ ’ Jane groaned in her mind. ‘ _What in the world is going on?’_

Her vision…why’s it blurry all of a sudden?! Did she hit her head on something earlier and black out? That would be awfully concerning if she did, especially if she can’t even remember said incident ever occurring. 

“I…don’t…t…hink…she…co…uld…h…ear…y…ou, Fox—”

And speaking of forgettable events, when did she reach the young two-tailed fox genius’ side? And was that Sonic’s edgy rival she heard just now? ‘ _Come to think of it, I don’t hear Eggman or a battle going on at all—uggghh!_ ’ pain suddenly bloomed at the forefront of her mind, and she shut her eyes closed with a low hiss. ‘ _Holy fuck! Why does this hurt so…_ ’

“O…h no!”

“T…hat’s…not—”

The young woman blacked out before she could catch the rest of the fuzzy black figure’s words or even register the alarmed tone in the fuzzy orange figure’s voice.

“A…nd t…here…she…go…es. Po…or…girl…”

**xXXXXXXXXx**

When she came to, later on, Jane was alone. And it was very dark. That was the first thing she noticed as soon as her eyes slid open. At first, the young woman was confused. Then she became worried, thinking that she had gone blind all of sudden—or in-between the time of her waking up the first time and going back to “sleep” until her wandering golden brown eyes landed on the ceiling, a row of stalagmites looming above her and glistening with what looked like water.

‘ _Where am I?_ ’ she frowned, pondering over her location in the area as she sat up and looked around the place, hoping to get a sense of where she was. The last thing she could recall —which wasn’t much to begin with and that seriously annoyed the crap out of her— was her waking up in a field, and even though her sense of awareness had been compromised a bit, she was still able to figure out a few things and get an idea of where she was at and who she was with at the time.

Now, it was different. 

She wasn’t outside in the open grassy field anymore, and she sure wasn’t surrounded by three of Sonic’s friends. Although some small part of her wondered where they were at now, the logical part of her brain reasoned that they couldn’t have gone too far from here or left the area completely. Surely, they wouldn’t abandon her—

**_BOREEEEE!_ **

The sudden growl, as soft and non-threatening as it was, broke Jane out of her thoughts, and a transparent orange-red face with a head full of fur, green-blue eyes, and large fluffy ears appeared before her own eyes. However, it quickly moved away with a scared yelp to avoid getting beheaded by the large staff that suddenly appeared in the dark brunette-blonde’s hands.

Jane, once she realized what the thing in front of her was and sensed that she was in no danger of being attacked, blinked and vanished her weapon away. She gave the floating creature, which looked to be a fox of some kind, an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry, little spirit. You sort of gave me a small scare there,” she said sincerely, surprising it. “Though...here’s a word of advice for you. Try not to sneak up on others next time so that they won’t accidentally kill you—and succeed at doing it too. Lucky for you, I had enough training and control to stop that from happening.”

The lesser spirit nodded quietly, relaxing a bit.

Jane observed the fox for a few moments, noting the surprise still lingering in its aura but not on its face. She smiled, which confused the spirit. “I assume you’re wondering how am I able to see you as clear as day, no?” at its surprised yet hesitant nod, Jane continued, “Unlike the majority of other beings and humans, my eyes are pretty...umm...special. I can see lesser spirits like you, hidden objects or individuals, dead people, and various other things,” she explained, completely ignoring the shocked look on its face at that last one. The young woman was pretty much used to the reaction and has come to expect it every time she —well only if they asked her first— tells people about her eyes.

The fox spirit let out an intrigued chirp, making her laugh. 

‘ _Never have I thought I would find a lesser spirit in a place like this. I know Earth doesn’t have a lot of them or an abundance of mana, which is quite strange. There are only a few places on the planet I know that have both, and I’ve been to all of them a few times before. This place, on the other hand, is new. Unknown. I don’t recognize it at all._ ’ 

The young hybrid woman took another look around the area, and came to the conclusion that she was in some kind of cave...if the cold breeze in the air, the rock covered walls, and the stalagmites hanging high above her head were any indications. 

‘ _Something’s telling me I’m not on planet Earth anymore. There’s just so much mana here..._ ’ Jane finally got up from the floor and walked towards the entrance she could see up ahead. She stopped once she reached the end and looked outside to see a valley full of greenery, trees, mountains, and monsters in the distance. ‘ _...And out there. It feels so surreal, so magical...and somehow, it feels just like home. Did I get transported to another realm—world or something?_ ’

**_BOREE!_ **

Jane turned her head and looked at the spirit who floated over towards her. “Hey little one, have you seen anyone else around here besides me? Like a small two-tailed fox with blue eyes and his two friends perhaps?” she asked.

The lesser fox spirit stopped in front of her and nodded its head.

Jane grinned. “Oh good! Do you know where they are right now? Or where they were headed to?”

The transparent creature paused for a moment, flicking its large fluffy tail to the side in deep thought. A minute later, it looked up and, without a word, pointed a single claw over its shoulder.

Jane followed her eyes in the direction of where the lesser spirit was pointing at and saw a grassy ledge leading up to an entrance of a forest of some kind. “There huh…” she said quietly, staring at the trees surrounding that area with a faraway look in her eyes, lost in her thoughts until she felt more than saw a tail tap her on the shoulder. “Oh…!” she snapped back to reality, ignoring the urge to shiver from the phantom touch she received from the spirit, and turned her attention back on it. “Thank you for giving me the direction of where I need to go.”

The lesser fox spirit shrugged in response.

With a slight tilt of her head, Jane murmured a short yet polite “good-bye” and walked around the creature and out of the cave. 

Before she could journey her way into the valley however, the lesser fox spirit chirped loudly to get her attention. “Hmm?” the young woman turned and raised a brow in confusion when she saw the transparent creature tap its head then made a motion towards her own with worried blue-green eyes.

A look of understanding flashed through her own eyes as she reached up with her hand to touch her forehead, and Jane inwardly gasped in surprise at the piece of cloth neatly wrapped around it. 

Wow! She didn’t even notice that was there, and wouldn’t have unless someone told her, like right now. Quietly, she traced a gentle finger over the medical tape for a few moments, almost a bit absentmindedly without her even realizing it, before dropping her hand.

Tails, Shadow, or their friend must’ve bandaged her head up and took care of whatever injuries she had earlier—if any at all. Plus, it seems like whatever pain she was suffering from before —most likely from the concussion she sustained after hitting her head on something no doubt— was gone too. 

That was a major plus in her book.

She’ll have to thank the three for taking care of her once she finds them.

“Oh! No, my head is fine, little one. It’s not hurting anymore if that’s what you were worried about,” the young brunette-blonde finally said, reassuring the spirit who sighed in relief. Then she gave the fox a closed eye smile that spoke of how grateful she was. “By the way, thank you for watching over me while I was out. You didn’t have to. But again, thank you.”

The lesser spirit perked up at her gratitude, chirping in slight bashfulness as a small blush colored its furry cheeks. But before Jane could say anything else, the transparent creature waved to her good-bye and took off, heading deeper into the cave.

Jane stood there, blinking at the empty spot where the fox spirit had been seconds ago before she shook her head and turned around to leave the cave.

‘ _Poor thing must’ve not been given enough gratitude in its life before...or maybe it hasn't interacted with someone that can see lesser spirits like it perhaps?_ ’

Sunlight washed over her and warmed her chilled body up the second she stepped outside, making the young woman stop and look up.

"Morning huh?” she said quietly, staring at the clouds in the bright blue sky emotionlessly. ‘ _Well..._ ’ she looked down and over at the forest past the valley. ‘ _Guess I should start looking for either one of Sonic’s friends now, but first..._ ’

The young astrophysicist closed her eyes and sent a tiny trickle of mana out, checking for any nearby hostiles —aside from the wild monsters wandering around— in the vicinity. Once everything came back clear, Jane drew her mana back in, opened her eyes, and started walking again.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Well into her journey through the valley, Jane came across more than a few monsters who wanted to have a go at her, thinking that this puny little human would be an easy target for them; however, they soon learned that that was a big mistake. And so, they found themselves wiped out, slain by the end her staff and quick punches and kicks that tore parts of the ground up. The young woman didn’t even bother with her spirit artes or gravity based techniques, in fact, seeing as her opponents weren’t that strong to begin with. 

After all, why waste so much unnecessary energy on the monsters when they can be easily taken out with a few short, simple moves? Besides, she wanted the place to still be intact for others to use—not her though, she had no problem moving through destroyed terrain areas as she had done it many times before in the past. 

‘ _Careful Jane, use a little restraint. You already destroyed the ground. No need to make the damage spread and make it worse,_ ’ she chastised herself, jumping over the last monster —a giant boar— remaining on the field to avoid its charge attack.

Before the boar could come back around, Jane landed on the other side of the field and disappeared in a bright flash. Then, a loud, dying squeal erupted from the monster as it found the upper half of its body severed from its lower half and dropped like a rock in a puddle of its own life force, fading eyes staring up at the back of the human who suddenly appeared in front of its smoking giant head. She flicked the blood off her weapon without a word, ignoring the corpse that exploded into particles of mana dust behind her, its remains getting swept up by the wind and blown up into the sky. 

* * *

**_|**VICTORY BATTLE QUOTES**|_ **

* * *

_The young woman twirled her staff around with practiced ease before flinging it up in the air. Then she spun around in a circle as her weapon came back down and caught it with just one hand before it could land on her head._

_“Well that was easy.”_ — _Jane_

* * *

After the battle was over and done with, Jane looked around and winced at the mess that was left behind, spying bits and pieces of dirt mixed in with grass that had been uprooted from the ground earlier, leaving nothing but small ditches behind—and was that a giant crater she spotted just a couple of feet away? 

“Huh?” Jane uttered in confusion as she made her way over to it while being mindful of the cracks running along the somewhat-damaged ground, which led up to the hole. The young woman stopped in front of it and got on her knees, leaning forward a bit to get a closer look at the thing.

And sure enough, it was a crater. A very deep and wide crater that was massive in size, comparable to that of a public pool.

...Well, almost.

It wasn’t exactly the same size, but it was close enough.

“Holy…” she trailed off in alarm, her golden brown eyes blown wide in shock.

She didn’t remember _that_ being there...unless it had been one of the other monsters that caused said crater to appear with its stomping tantrums, and she had just been too busy trying not to get bulldozed over by the crazy thing to care about the massive hole.

...Or maybe it had been there all along and she was just now noticing it. Because if that was the case, then she was certainly glad that she had not miraculously fallen in the hole during her battle.

And that was very telling about her sense of awareness, which she wasn’t going to get into right now. She’ll deal with that later after she finds Sonic's friends.

And once she does, she will wait until she’s alone—or wait until night time when everybody goes off to bed, find some nice cover under a tree or something where she can sit down, and brood in miserable silence. 

Who knows. Maybe she’ll get lucky and get a chance to see what the stars are like in this place compared to the ones back at home. 

Space, the moon, the stars, and everything in-between and beyond that. They always cheer her up.

‘ _I’m definitely gonna try stargazing tonight. And if not tonight, then tomorrow night for sure!_ ’

Feeling somewhat in a better mood now, a smile settled on Jane’s face only for it to drop to a serious one, seconds later, when her eyes landed back on the crater. She gave it one last look that dragged on far longer than she wanted to before turning away from the sight, and with a sigh that spoke of many emotions swimming underneath the surface in her, she rose to her feet and quickly yet carefully walked around the hole.

Once she made it over to the other side safely, the young woman took off in a run without looking back.

If she had, Jane would’ve seen ominous red eyes from a huge shadow staring at her before retreating back into the ground.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Along the way, she ran into more monsters. These ones were a bit stronger than the last, but she had no trouble taking care of them.

However, they were a few she outright avoided—not because she thought she couldn’t handle them ( _she could_ ), but because she didn’t want to waste any more mana. And she already wasted enough earlier, which sucked but what could she do? Nothing. 

A sigh of relief escaped from her lips when she avoided another monster —this one being a dragon of all things— and finally made it over to the ledge. The young woman stopped in front of it and looked up, scanning and calculating a way to get up the wall. Should she climb it the traditional, civilian way with her hands and feet? Or manipulate her own gravity and walk up the wall like a ninja boss? Or just levitate herself up in the air and reach the top like a god? 

“Aaaaahhh! No!”

Over the swishing sounds of the wind, there was a faint voice she could hear at the very top along with various growls and roars. It almost sounded like—

**_BOOM!_ **

“H-Hey! Leave me alone!”

—Tails.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Yes...that was definitely his voice, high pitched with fear.

“I said don’t come any closer!”

Jane tensed at the sudden rumble of a muted explosion she could hear at the top. 

‘ _I need to see what’s happening up there and fast!_ ’

Quickly making her mind up, she discarded all of her earlier options and leaped into the air. 

The wind blew around her harshly as she soared high up into the sky, past the top and past the battle taking place below her, which was overfilled with monsters and a scared two-tailed orange fox who was flying around and throwing miniature bombs at them.

‘ _.........._ ’

Guess she got worried for nothing.

But still...it won't be long until one of those monsters finds a way to knock him out of the sky, she mused, eyeing the bigger one —a wingless dragon with semi-armored plates— backing up from the rest of the group.

It was almost as if the dragon was getting ready to—

‘ _Not on my watch, buddy!_ ’ her eyes flashed with heated determination as she summoned her trusty staff and shouted, “Tails! I need you to get out of the way now!”

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Hearing her shout, everyone including Tails looked up; however, the two-tailed fox saw the floating figure of the woman in the air with her hand raised, getting ready to fire some sort of attack, and immediately flew back.

“Okay!” 

Considering he had no idea what was about to come up next, he moved back even further, far away from the ledge, and closer to the tall tree he could see behind him out of the corner of his eye.

“Down…” he heard her speak, directly hundreds upon hundreds of meters above him, in a low but powerful voice.

His blue eyes went wide at the sight of all of the monsters, both airborne and grounded, on the ledge being crushed by an invisible voice into the ground, cracking it in the process.

And try as they might, they couldn’t move or get up at all. 

Maybe it was gravity?

The anthropomorphic fox could definitely feel that the air above the monsters was very distorted, visible, and blackish-white in color, crackling with so much power that it was starting to become a little overwhelming for even someone like him who’s been around those able to wield that much power such as Sonic, Silver, and Shadow. 

‘ _But this feels much stronger than their attacks though. It certainly rivals the maximum amount of energy those three give off in their Super forms just in power alone. Amazing…_ ’ he said in awe.

A dark brown blur with a streak of blonde flew down past him, jolting him out of his thoughts.

“Up!” Tails heard her say.

He looked down and his eyes widened even further to see the ground implode, throwing all of the monsters up in the air until— 

“Chaos Control!”

—A flash of bright green-white light appeared some ways away from the battlefield, along with glowing shards of yellow light that flew towards a dozen monsters.

“Chaos Spear!”

**_KABOOM!_ **

Suddenly, a black blur that was familiar to Tails dropped down and rolled into a ball, spinning towards another group at intense velocity, joining and passing the somewhat equally fast dark brown-blonde one. Then in an instant, he connected with her and destroyed half a dozen monsters while she slayed the other half in one swoop.

**_BOOM!_ **

The two appeared in the air, back to back, and Jane slowly looked at the black and red hedgehog in surprise out of the corner of her golden brown eye. But he shook his head and motioned the enemies below them with his ruby red eyes.

Realization flashed across her face once she picked up his intent, and with a single nod, the young hybrid woman turned her attention back on the monsters and tightened her fist around her weapon.

Together, they descended…

“You ready?” she asked.

“Of course I am!” he replied.

...And tried out their very first combination attack.

“Spinning Whirlwind of Destruction!”

Jane and Shadow flew and danced around the battlefield in perfect harmony, quickly adjusting to each other's movements without a struggle, as if they’ve been partners for years and danced together in battle before, tearing the remaining group of monsters apart in a tornado blur of black and brown. 

**_BOOM!_ **

The dark hedgehog and dark haired human landed on the ground and turned their sights on the remaining five monsters that managed to survive, miraculously enough. They also didn’t miss the gruesome amount of injuries the group sustained though, and the two knew then and there that the monsters were weak and close to dying.

It was time to finish—

**_KABOOM!_ **

—this fight.

**_RWWWAAAAR!_ **

The monsters exploded from the assault of miniature bombs that came down on them from above, and died before the two could even run over to attack them, turning into mana dust right as Tails descended onto the field.

* * *

**_|**VICTORY BATTLE QUOTES**|_ **

* * *

_The two tailed walked over to the slightly annoyed yet amused black and red streaked hedgehog and the surprised dark brown-blonde haired human with red tips in her hair._

_“Did you just steal our kill?” — Jane_

_“I never thought you had it in you to pull off a stunt like that, Fox. I was so sure that you were going to stay out of the way until it was over.” — Shadow_

_“Sorry about that you two…” *the twin tailed fox sweat-dropped and scratched the back of his head sheepishly* “Those guys looked really weak, so I decided to come back and help you both out. I didn’t expect them to die right away though.” — Tails_

_“Hmph.” — Shadow_

_“Umm...Miss...?” *the fox looked between the dark hedgehog and the human* “Did Shadow just…uhh...connect his aura up with yours?” — Tails_

_“Jane…My name is Jane Foster.” *the young astrophysicist turned her eyes towards Shadow and stared hard at him* “And yeah, he did. It’s called_ **_linking_ ** _from what I was taught. He also did it without warning I might add.” — Jane_

_The black and red hedgehog shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly._

_“I seem to recall that you didn’t have a problem with it afterwards.” — Shadow_

_Jane's intense stare suddenly morphed into a glare._

_‘Uh-oh.’ — Tails_

_“...That’s...besides the point, Shadow.” — Jane_

_The hedgehog crossed his arms and looked away._

_“...Whatever.” — Shadow_

* * *

Sensing an impending argument about to break out, Tails looked at Shadow and asked, “I take it that you didn’t run into Rouge before you came here huh?”

The dark hedgehog turned to him.

“No. I couldn’t find her anywhere,” he answered with a frown.

Jane perked up at the name that sounded familiar to her. “Rouge? You mean G.U.N.’s Agent, Rouge the Bat? The one who works for that military and international security organization allied with the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.? That was who you two were with earlier?”

They both looked at her.

“Yes, the very same one,” Tails answered for the both of them. “We got separated in the forest by an unknown large figure with red eyes that came out of the fog and attacked us near the exit.”

“Large figure with red eyes?” she asked, furrowing her brows.

“Uh-huh,” he replied.

“And this happened after you guys left that lesser spirit in charge to watch over me in the cave?” she inquired.

Tails nodded.

Shadow stood back and let the young two-tailed fox handle this, silently observing the woman in front of them, wondering what her aim was with these questions, what was she trying to figure out from the answers she received. Did she piece together what that creature that attacked him, Rouge, and Tails was? And did she know where they are? He knew for sure this wasn’t planet Earth—the vast land of greenery, trees, and monsters that gave off a strange kind of energy that was like this woman’s energy was a dead giveaway.

The ageless hedgehog didn’t doubt one bit that Jane knew something. He knew she did. And he sees it, the way her eyes flashes and squints just a tad every time the fox answers something for her. And while Tails may take that as confusion or curiosity, he knew better. Shadow knew she was carefully listening and picking apart the fox’s words, and he could imagine—no, he can _see_ the wheels turning in her head, processing everything that was being given to her.

For all their sakes, he hoped that she had some answers.

Or at least figured something out because he had nothing.

It hurt his pride a little to admit that—even to himself, but he was nearing the end of his rope, nearing the end of his patience.

He truly didn’t know how much longer he could take without finding answers. He was now starting to regret not staying back there with that strange transparent fox —lesser spirit she called it, which was a strange name, but she seemed to recognize what the thing was— and watch over her while Tails and Rouge go look for a city or some kind of town and purchase some supplies out there. At least with that option, he could’ve gotten his answers earlier after she woke up, and from there, the two of them would have gone out to find Tails and Rouge, track them down faster with his Chaos Control.

“—I see. So that’s what happened,” Jane’s voice snapped Shadow out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see the young human vanish her weapon away. “Never entered a new world via the lake before, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. Guess mirrors aren’t the only gateway or portal to another place anymore. Maybe I should try that out when I get home and see if I end up in Asgard or something,” aside from the intrigued wonder in the woman’s quiet voice, there was a sly touch of sarcasm he could hear bleeding into that last sentence of hers. And Shadow couldn’t help but smirk at that. 

He, too, found the thought, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, amusing. He really shouldn’t, but he did nonetheless. 

Not bad. Not bad at all. This human was proving to be an interesting one so far, and she apparently had a great sense of humor too.

“So what are you going to do now...Jane?” he asked, schooling his expression into a neutral yet serious one as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the human.

Her golden brown eyes looked over and locked onto his ruby red ones, her expression mirroring his.

“I’m thinking about helping you two look for Rouge,” she said, much to his barely concealed surprise. “It’s the least I can do in return for the three of you looking after me and taking care of me in the short time that you did before...you know…” she finished in a soft voice. And maybe after she helps them, she can leave. Then she can start looking for her friend, although she had a feeling that he had already left and was long gone by now.

The two looked at the woman with raised brows.

“Do as you wish,” Shadow said, resisting the urge to shake his head at her, and uncrossed his arms from his chest.

Tails on the other hand though…

“Your friend?” he asked, with curiosity lingering in his young voice.

“Huh?” Jane blinked, not realizing she had actually said that aloud. Oops. “Oh! Yeah, my friend. I was supposed to meet up with him earlier—or was that yesterday? I don’t know. But anyway, I was going to meet up with him in Mystic Ruins before all of...well...this happened,” she motioned the area around them with a wave of her hand, a sheepish look creeping onto her face despite how dreadfully worried she felt on the inside. And that is only because she knew what was coming. 

Oh she definitely wasn’t looking forward to meeting her friend, who she knew was going to be pissed at her.

Jane just hoped to the god that he wouldn’t kill her—or maim her with Yamato ( _hell, both choices were bad enough in her eyes!_ ) the minute she senses him and he her.

Fuck...she was doomed no matter what she was going to tell him, right?

...Lord have mercy on her soul. 

“Oh…” Tails said with a short pause. Then suddenly, a thought hit him right there. “Well, we can help you look for him!” he suggested with a smile, oblivious to the look Shadow gave him.

Jane was shocked. “You can? Oh Tails, you don’t have to—”

“No, I insist!” he shook his head, now noticing but totally ignoring the burning stare boring a hole into the back of his head. “We can totally help each other out!” he said, widening his smile.

Jane blinked again, “I…” then slowly returned the smile. “Alright,” she resigned with a sigh.

Shadow resisted the urge to slap a hand to his forehead, so he sighed under his breath instead.

Trust the Fox to be roping him into this, helping other people out without even considering asking him first and such. It’s not like he was going to refuse, but still, Tails shouldn’t have done that.

Whatever. He’ll deal with him later, but first, he needed a description of Jane’s friend.

“What does your friend look like?” he asked her.

“Tall, handsome, intimidating in a strange yet alluring and terrifying way, finely dressed in expensive blue and black leather clothing that speaks of his royal status, has short spiky white hair that he keeps swept back, chilling blue eyes that look like they could either draw you in or kill you on the spot if you just so happen to stare into them for too long, and carries around a sheathed sword on his left hip with an air of arrogance that can be a bit suffocating at times. Oh and he has a stoic look on his face—or a resting bitch one whenever he gets into a mood,” Jane recited with a drone, her voice sounding all calm and business-like, as if she was talking about the weather or a project and not her own friend she realized with a small wince. ‘ _Sorry Vergil!_ ’ she quickly added in her mind.

Tails and Shadow noticed all of that, including the backhanded compliments thrown in there, right away with a sweat drop. And the two almost fell over in shock from the absurdity alone.

...Key word, almost.

“Ummm…” the two-tailed fox paused, biting his tongue to hold back the laughter he wanted to release. And it took a few silent but deep breaths for him to make it go away. “Okay,” was the only word that could come out of his mouth.

“We didn’t see anyone like that around back in Mystic Ruin,” Shadow replied, masking his expression easily. “But it’s a possibility that if your friend was anywhere nearby when the fog rolled in and accidentally stepped into a lake or something, then he, too, could’ve been dragged here into this world with us.”

Jane looked at him with hope in her eyes.

“You think so, Shadow?”

Shadow shrugged. “As I've said, it’s a possibility,” he repeated.

Jane beamed at him, nearly blinding the poor hedgehog with her smile. “Well what are we waiting for then? Let’s go find them!” she said with extreme vigor, rushing past the two and headed over to the entrance of the forest. “I suggest you two slowpokes hurry up if you don’t want to get left behind!” she called over her shoulder, teasing them.

Tails, who sweat dropped in response, and Shadow, who let out a small huff in response, looked at each other then back at the human woman far ahead of them, and ran after her with haste. 

“Oh by the way you two...” 

“What?” they asked cautiously, immediately catching up to Jane.

“You guys stink at hiding your emotions."

".........."

"But I will admit that you, Shadow, do a much better job at not showing them completely, compared to Tails at least.”

They tripped and fell over this time around.


	3. Chapter 3

They walked for hours on end, fumbling through the forest with no direction in mind. It was dark, foggy, and, for some odd reason, very humid. And they had no idea where they were going—well, Jane had no idea where they were going. She was the only clueless one here, following Tails and Shadow who were in front of her, leading the way as if they knew where to go.

Although from the looks on their faces, the young woman speculated that they, too, didn’t know where they were going and got the distinct feeling that they were trying to hide it.

Oh boy...

Jane sighed low to herself, wondering why they were even bothering in the first place. She had just told them not too long ago that it was futile to hide their thoughts and their emotions, and that they should just say whatever they have on their mind.

But to no one’s surprise, she kind of expected this.

She didn’t know when but at some point in her life, and after dropping a few discreet hints here and there in the few conversations she had with people in the past about this very topic, they later forgot that ability of hers.

So she just left it alone.

Jane didn’t know why she expected something different from these two, but maybe that was her own fault for assuming so. 

Thankfully, the issue didn’t bother her at all.

“Do you two have a general idea of where to go since you’ve been here before?”

They stopped in their tracks and so did Jane. Despite the fact that she couldn’t see their faces—not with their backs turned to her that is, the young scientist sensed a bit of hesitance and dread from Tails and worried-irritation from Shadow.

“Umm...kind...of?” the two-tailed fox paused then looked at the tall dark hedgehog and said nothing further.

Shadow crossed his arms and stared at the younger mobian for a few ticks, making him a bit nervous, before turning his sight onto Jane. “Yes and no,” he answered carefully.

“Explain,” she narrowed her eyes at him.

Before he could talk, his eyes caught sight of something moving swiftly through the trees above them, leaving a whirlwind of leaves to fall to the ground slowly. “Hold that thought for now because we’ve got company,” he told her before getting into a fighting stance. 

His two companions tensed and looked up, searching the trees for their foe as they slid into their own fighting stances.

“Chaos Spear!”

Jane and Tails watched the shards of yellow light fly towards a tree to their right and hit the trunk, exploding and taking chunks of the bark off in the process, leaving a giant crack in its wake. And within seconds, that crack traveled up the length of the trunk, by passing all of the branches and climbing over the moss that was growing on top in various spots until it reached the very top. Then with a loud groan, the tree split in half before their very eyes.

**_RWAAAAAAAAR!!!_ **

The trio quickly jumped away as the first half of the tree facing them fell and landed on the ground with a great thud, creating a mixed cloud of dirt, dust, and green powder from the moss that covered the sky and the group.

“Did that do it?” Tails wheezed.

“I don’t think so. I didn’t see any blood or a body drop down from the tree,” Shadow replied with a slight cough. ‘ _And if the creature came out unscathed from this, I’d be very surprised,_ ’ he added in his mind before grabbing the young fox and the human and Chaos Controlling away without another word. 

**xXXXXXXXXx**

From somewhere high up in the trees, a large red-eyed figure crouched on the branch it was on and looked down. The creature bit back a growl as it stared at the empty spot where the group had just been seconds ago in anger. And despite the fact that they were gone now, a small piece of that energy had been left behind. 

Yes, it could use that to track them down. Trace their signatures from here to wherever they land at and go from there.

There was no need to rush. It had plenty of time to kill.

**_RWAAAAAAAAR!!!_ **

The creature stood and disappeared, leaving an even thicker fog than before in its wake.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

When the trio dropped out the sky from a green-white light and landed on the ground some good distance away—specifically, in front of a deep pothole filled with water next to some red stained bushes that were coated with a type of liquid substance that smelled suspiciously like poison and a group of overturned trees that had deep slash marks embedded into their trunks, they hid behind one of them and sat down.

“Hey, is it just me or did the fog get worse?”

“It did, Fox.”

‘ _Great! That’s just what we needed!_ ’ Jane said with a sarcastic grumble. Then she closed her eyes and let out a small inaudible sigh. ‘ _Let’s just hope that whatever is out there decides to show itself…_ ’ she breathed, carefully concentrating on the task she was about to set out and do. ‘ _If not, then I guess I have no choice but to do this!_ ’ the young woman opened her eyes and, without warning, expanded her field of vision as it turned blue. 

Ignoring the quiet “...iridescent purple...” and the barely suppressed gasp of “...your eyes…” next to her, Jane peered through the wood of the tree, past the thick fog covering the area.

Everything that had been previously hidden before was now visible to her and only her. Trees, rocks, bushes, and small critters popped into existence, their forms glowing a golden white color as they devolved into transparent silhouettes with a lavender outline around them, one-by-one, until everything in front of her was see-through.

And once her eyes adjusted to the sight—which in reality only took about five seconds, Jane got up and quietly told her two companions to wait here before stepping out from their hiding spot.

For the next five minutes, she checked the whole place, both this area and the one they just left, from top-to-bottom.

She also scanned through every crevice or spot she found along the way, running into the small local critters and wild monsters who were strangely docile all of a sudden, and flew over the lake that was sitting not too far away from the tree Shadow destroyed earlier.

Then, like the cautious and perceptive being that she was, Jane took an additional two minutes looking through the water on her way back over to the other side, checking again for any signs of her foe. And by the time she reached land, the young woman realized that she had not encountered any sea life during her search, which didn’t bold too well for her and her mood.

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

In fact, the whole forest had gone quiet.

‘ _I don’t like the looks of this,_ ’ Jane searched the area one more time warily before switching her sight back to normal, paying no mind to the world around her reverting back to normal too as she turned on her heel, head down with her hands in her pockets, and walked away with a weary heart.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

“Did you find the creature?” Shadow’s hushed voice was the first thing she heard once he spotted her walking out of the fog towards him and Tails. 

Jane, who’d been lost in her thoughts up until now, looked up and shook her head.

A dark look flashed across the black and red hedgehog’s face before it quickly went away, leaving his features blank and unreadable to her, mostly. “That is not a good sign,” a sigh left his mouth as he said this, and Jane watched the immortal hedgehog stiffly cross his arms over his white furred chest and stare at something on the ground past her figure. 

“I don’t like the looks of this at all,” Jane wanted to laugh at that, but she crushed that urge rather quickly and, instead, let out an amused snort.

“I said the same thing to myself not too long ago.”

“Hmph.”

Tails looked between the two of them.

“Do you think we should continue making our way through the forest despite the current danger we’re in?” they turned and looked at him. “I mean...there’s no real way of knowing if that thing we heard earlier left or not,” the twin-tailed fox genius continued once he had their attention. “But if by some chance that that creature is still out there, somewhere, then shouldn’t we go and confront it in another area that’s more open and wider than this hazardous one? We'll have a better chance at fighting the thing off if we get attacked out there instead of staying here and risking ourselves an injury or two trying to wait for the thing to show up with all of this—” he gestured to the debris lying around and continued on, “—still here in place.”

“He does have a point, Shadow,” Jane said and returned her attention back on the hedgehog. “I’d rather have enough room to maneuver around and fight without hitting you guys accidentally in the process with my widespread attacks, which I carefully avoided from using because of this exact situation.”

Shadow uncrossed his arms, softening his features as he looked at the human woman in front of him and nodded his head.

“Alright. Let’s head out then.”

The hedgehog turned and took off in a black blur with the other two hot on his heels.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

For what seems like forever—after an endless amount of dodging battles ( _except for one that ended up being pretty disastrous_ ) with a few wild monsters that wanted to take the trio on and failed to engage them in one, they finally made it to an empty clearing.

An empty wide clearing that was open, and mostly untouched, with a clear path in front of them that leads to—

“Oh yeah!” Tails blurted out in pure delight.

—An exit they all could see up ahead in the distance.

Jane wanted to cry—and for three entirely different reasons: one, they finally found a way out of this damn creepy forest. Two, they didn’t find Rouge or her friend anywhere at all in said forest, and three, she had no idea why but she could pick up a tiny trace of her friend’s aura here and beyond the forest.

Faint as it was, a piece of him as well as many others were still hanging around the area.

It wasn't hard to miss really.

It was all in the air, which was charged with so much negative energy and emotions that it nearly left her breathless.

“Jane!” 

The young astrophysicist slowly blinked once, then twice, and looked up to see a worried Tails and a puzzled Shadow looking down at her.

But wait!

Why do they look like giants to her now?

And why did it feel like she was laying on the ground?

The black hedgehog stared at her as if she had two heads. 

“You _are_ on the ground.” 

Oh, well that explains their unexpected height growth. 

Aaaaand she hadn’t realized that she voiced her thoughts out loud. Again. 

Gosh damn it! She really needed to stop doing that!

“What happened?” Tails asked her. “You just fell all of sudden!” he exclaimed while Shadow walked over to the woman’s side and helped her up from the ground. “Are you hurt anywhere? Do we need to take a short break and wait for you to recover? I wouldn’t mind if you said yes...” he looked over to his friend only to see him shrug. Then he looked back at Jane. “And I don’t think Shadow minds either.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled to the dark hedgehog, letting go of his hand, and turned her attention to the two-tailed fox. “No, it’s fine, Tails. We can keep going. It’s just...” her brows furrowed as she was thinking on what to say next.

Shadow frowned.

“You blacked out in that split second and woke up on the ground,” it wasn’t a question.

Jane bit her lip.

“Greeeat,” she replied with a tired sigh and gave the two a solemn look. “Look, not a lot of people know this, but emotions for highly sensitive empathetic folks like us can be dangerous. It can get a little overwhelming to handle sometimes when we sense them, but only if those emotions are negative in nature and mingling amongst each. On their own as individuals, they are dangerous. But when they mix, they turn into a chaotic ball of energy. One that has a presence of its own and, if powerful enough, can linger in the air for many hours, long after they’d left the owner even.”

“I see. So that’s what you felt,” Tails said quietly. “And as a result, you blacked out because there were too many of them here that bombarded you.”

“Mhmm,” the young woman answered. “Only those who have mastered their ability can block out those emotions—or ignore them altogether. Usually, I’m able to do either one, but I wasn’t expecting that many, let alone any lingering ones upon arriving here,” she continued with a mumble. “Which worries me because there could have been many who’ve been in this area in the past and something could’ve happened to them. Maybe they were attacked by someone or _something_ who lives in this forest here, but I could be wrong about that.”

Tails and Shadow took their eyes off the young hybrid human and looked at each other.

A silent message seemed to have passed them, and with a small shrug, they turned back to the woman who was still talking.

“—his signature is here, but he himself is not. So where is that man?”

“Jane.” 

“I know he went through that other area some time ago—if the blood on the bushes and his work on those trees were any indications.”

“Earth to Jane.”

“I hope he’s alright though. I know he’s more than capable of taking care of himself, but there’s a possibility that he, as ludicrous as the idea sounds, could have…” Jane suddenly went quiet then red at the sound of a _**cough**_ along with the feeling of two stares boring into her head. And with a small sheepish smile, she looked up. “Oh! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I rambled on there you two. I, uhh, sort of tend to do that a lot!” she apologized.

Tails waved his hand, a smile in place, as he told her it was fine.

“Vergil…” Shadow suddenly said.

“Huh?” Jane uttered with a raised brow.

The black and red hedgehog gave her a long look.

“Vergil,” he repeated in a deadpan tone of voice. “That’s your friend’s name, am I right?”

“Ah!” realization flashed for a split second in her golden brown eyes. “Yeah, it is! I’m just worried about him, that’s all!” a troubled look crossed her face as she said this.

“I understand,” was all Tails said, his expression mimicking hers. 

Seeing a similar look on the dark hedgehog’s face now, Jane knew that the two were thinking about their own friend and were more than likely worried about her too. ‘ _There’s no use in pondering on their whereabouts right now,_ ’ she shook her head. ‘ _We’ll just have to keep on looking for them._ ’

The woman schooled her features once she pulled herself together. “Hey you two…” she broke them out of their thoughts. “Let’s get out here and continue our search beyond this forest.”

The two nodded in silent unison.

Jane gave them a quick reassuring smile before walking ahead of them, and it didn’t take very long for the two behind her to follow. 

Other than the wind and the sounds of their footsteps, things were silent between them. No one was truly in the mood to talk, and it’s not as if they had any topics in mind that they wanted to discuss. They did but they can always come back to them later. 

Right now, the trio had other things on their minds. Stuff to mull over and digest from today.

**_RWAAAAAAAAR!!!_ **

The group froze and then slid into their own fighting stances without a word.

They didn’t expect to hear that sound again so soon and hear it so close to their location, especially since they’re almost at the exit now. Hell, it was right there in front of them too. A mere ten feet away!

**_RWAAAAAAAAR!!!_ **

To their surprise, the fog thickened and swarmed the entire area from all sides, swallowing everything up in plain sight. They still didn’t say anything and just looked on with slight aggravation and disbelief as the exit before them vanished into thin air.

‘ _You have got to be kidding me!_ ’ they turned back around to see that the path they walked on was gone too. 

Now, an endless white void greeted them, and from within that fog, they could hear the faint sound of leaves being shaken off a tree. Which tree, for there were many of them in this area, they didn’t know. But they didn’t like it.

And to no one’s surprise, Shadow was the first one to snap.

“I may tolerate some things but being played with is not one of them...” he spoke in a dangerously low voice, his aura spiking around him wildly as he raised his hand, “And you, my friend, have crossed a line that no one sane enough would dare cross. For that, you shall die!” and threw a massive barrage of Chaos Spears into the white void.

**_BOOM!!!_ **

When the smoke cleared, all they saw was a couple of destroyed trees laying on the forest ground.

Unfortunately, their enemy was nowhere in sight.

Jane’s eyes narrowed into slits.

‘ _So it’s going to be like that huh…_ ’ she closed her eyes in concentration and raised a hand up. ‘ _Alright you stupid beast, let’s see you try hiding now!_ ’ her eyes snapped open with a glow. Then with a wave of her hand, she cleared some of the fog away.

Tails shot her an incredulous look but didn’t bother to say anything.

Shadow on the other hand though…

“You didn’t think to do that earlier, Jane?”

The young hybrid winced at his cold tone.

“Oh I did, but I wasn’t exactly in the right mindset to pull it off. Do you know how taxing it can be to manipulate sometimes? Especially if the body is tired, low on energy, and hasn’t recovered to its fullest just yet?” she replied in a clipped voice, catching the new look forming on his face now. Then she bitterly added, “No, my control was acting a bit shitty earlier. Admit it, you and Tails saw what happened in the last battle we fought in. Tell me it wasn’t good.”

“That still sounds like an excuse to me.”

“It’s not an excuse! I was too tired to try earlier! Still am in fact!”

“You sure don’t sound tired right now, Jane!”

“How the hell do you know if I’m tired or not? Just because I don’t _sound_ like it doesn’t mean that I don’t _feel_ it, Shadow!”

“Even so, why did you even bother trying? I thought you said that manipulating weather when your control is not perfect is a bad idea. Or was that a lie you just told me? An emotion like anger can affect control, which is exactly the mood you’re in right now!”

“Umm...guys…” Tails meekly spoke up, trying to plead with them but his voice went unheard.

“I know that already!” she shouted, her aura spiking a bit.

“I highly doubt that,” he shot back with a scoff.

The two-tailed fox looked helplessly at the two arguing in front of him. He was thoroughly exasperated with the whole situation on the inside despite how nervous he looked on the outside. Out of the times to pick a fight with each other, did they have to choose it now? Seriously, they didn’t have time for this.

Their enemy was still out there. It could attack them at any moment now. And he wanted to be prepared for that, but he can’t with these two like this. 

Tails could see it. He could see how angry they were. At the enemy and at each other. The tension between them was so high that he could literally see sparks flying. It was enough to make his fur stand on ends and the urge to back up or flee suddenly appeared, but he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t leave his friends like this, vulnerable in their anger and at the mercy of their mysterious enemy.

The young fox gulped, steeling himself for a possible _physical_ fight. He had a feeling that this wasn’t going to end well.

“That bastard out there was starting to piss me off too you know! And you questioning me about the timing of using my weather manipulation ability is not helping! You think I like to be played with like a fool too?” she snapped, eyes flashing red for a split second before it died down as the fog thickened in response, much to their surprise. “You think I like this damn hide-and-go seek game we’re playing with that thing?” her eyes glowed red again as she growled. “You think I like being in a constant state of worry and paranoia, wondering whether or not that beast was going to show up? When will it show up?” the fog thickened even further in response to her growing anger and growing aura that was steadily turning demonic as she stalked up to the hedgehog. “No, I don’t!” she roared at him. “I hate it! I hate feeling like that! Feeling like I need to constantly check any and everything around us for every couple of minutes or so, wasting needless energy that I could’ve been saving now instead of having less than half in my already tired state on top of that! Hell, I’m pretty confident you’re not feeling so hot yourself either!” the young woman jabbed a finger at his chest.

Shadow, who had been getting increasingly angry himself, narrowed his eyes at her in warning—and some other indistinguishable emotion, which she couldn’t identify at the moment because she was too mad, that flashed in them. 

“I think you need to calm down right now, girl,” he slowly yet surely reached up and grabbed her wrist in a calm, gentle manner. “As a matter of fact…” then he closed his whole hand around her own, finishing up with a cold, “You need to shut up before you get hurt.”

‘ _Oh no…_ ’ Tails wanted to facepalm at the dark hedgehog’s rare moment of stupidity, but he was too frozen on the spot to do so. ‘ _Shadow! Why did you say that?! Now she’s going to take that the wrong way!_ ’

Glowing red-turned golden brown eyes looked down—

“What did you say…”

—And clashed with fiery ruby red ones.

“You heard me. Loud and clear.”

Jane’s entire face went blank before it darkened, and she leaned down until her face was about an inch away from his, her lips pulled back in a snarl to reveal a single sharp fang. 

“Is that a threat?”

Shadow flashed his own fangs at the woman, tightening his grip on her.

“No...but it will turn into one if you don’t get out of my face and back down, you hot-headed little brat.”

The death glare he received in response was so chilling that it felt like winter had came a little early this year. And too bad for her that it had no effect on him. He received many looks much worse than this one before in the past, so he wasn’t worried about hers one bit.

“Don’t call me a hot-headed little brat, you second rate-speedy faker!”

The forest suddenly went dead silent. 

But as for Tails…

The poor fox felt his heart drop in his stomach at the second new look forming onto the black and red hedgehog’s face. He didn’t think she would go there with the “faker” insult—only his best friend and fiercest rival Sonic did that, but she did.

And she said it so coldly too.

“Now, now, Shadow, I’m sure she really didn’t…” his eyes widened in shock when Jane flew back and landed harshly on her behind. “...mean it,” he finished weakly, watching the seething woman wipe a drop of blood from her chin and leap at the immortal hedgehog. 

“No wait!”

“You fucking asshole!” she roared, successfully nailing Shadow in the face and knocking him back into a tree.

However, the dark hedgehog quickly recovered and retaliated with a powerful kick.

“Guys! Please!” Tails’ protest fell on death ears. “Stop!” the young mobian shouted, clenching his fists at his sides nervously as he watched the two fall to the ground, punching, kicking, scratching, and biting each other. 

They wrestled for a bit, neither one giving in or claiming dominance. They were pretty even from the looks of things. And in the midst of their fight, they didn’t realize all that moving around they did earlier created a giant dust cloud. 

‘ _Oh crap!_ ’ the two-tailed swore when he found his vision obscured and flew back to prevent more dirt from hitting him. “Crap!” he landed unknowingly right in front of the exit behind him and quickly shielded his face, blocking a splash of mud that was thrown his way. “C’mon you two, knock it off already!” Tails peeked through the opening of his arms, trying and failing to see the fighting pair through the dust cloud.

But it was just too thick. He couldn’t see anything. 

All he could hear was their hollering, filled with a lot of pain, hurt, and anger. So much anger. It was enough to make him sad. He didn’t want his friends ( _and yes he considered Jane to be his friend now. She was a nice girl_ ) fighting. He wanted them to get along and be nice to each other. He wanted things between them to go back the way they were like yesterday, or even earlier today. 

‘ _Where did everything go wrong?_ ’ 

Tears welled up in his eyes then slid down his cheeks as he lowered his arms and stared miserably at the slowly receding dust cloud, his heart shuddering at the numerous amount of injuries he could gleam on their bodies from his safe spot.

‘ _I need to do something to stop this._ ’

Determination flared brightly in his ocean blue eyes, and he balled his hands into fists, clenching them tightly. Then suddenly, he felt ready. Felt like he can take on the whole world—or just the two powerful fighters in front of him. 

So he stood up straight and puffed his chest out. 

‘ _Alright…_ ’ the young fox exhaled, ‘ _I can do this!_ ’ and jumped into the air. 

‘ _I will stop you two!_ ’ 

Tails flew after the duo, his heart beating wildly in his chest in conjunction with the two tails behind him spinning at high speed, tears falling freely from his face.

“Shadow!”

It didn’t take him long to reach the two, and so, he stopped directly above them, hovering a good thirty feet in the air. Then without a word, he pulled a black miniature bomb out from seemingly nowhere and held it above his head.

“Jane!” 

Surprisingly, the two did hear him this time and they looked up—only after Shadow rolled off of the woman and moved his hand away from her bruised neck while she removed hers from his scratched up face. “What…” their heated glares disappeared at the sight of their friend, crying and holding a small bomb in his hands, and something else…

**_RWAAAAAAAAR!!!_ **

Tails whirled around, ready to toss the bomb at the presence he could feel coming up behind him only to throw it away from him in shock at the sight of a giant claw blurring past his face, taking with it more than a few strands of orange fur off his head and his right side.

Seconds later, he felt, more than saw, a copious amount of blood leave his newly acquired wounds. 

“Tails!” 

The sound of Jane’s horrified voice was drowned out by the loud thumping of his heart and the blinding white hot pain he could feel rippling through his body. 

“Tails!”

Time seemed to have slowed down for Shadow and Jane as they watched the young fox fall from the sky and crash to the ground with a sickening thud, throwing a cloud of dust up into the air with his landing. 

**_BOOM!_ **

The two flinched, shutting their eyes as the dirty cloud washed over them and left them in a coughing mess. 

“ **Well that was pretty easy.** ”

At the sound of a deep voice, one that sounded masculine and menacing, their eyes snapped open. The two immediately shared a look, appearing to come to an agreement for now from the looks of things, and nodded their heads.

Sadly, no words were exchanged as they slowly yet painfully got to their feet and dusted themselves off. 

“ **One down…** ”

By the time they finished and looked up, the cloud had receded, revealing a large shadow in the shape of a canine-vulpine-like monster with red eyes standing directly over a crater. 

And in that crater lied the bleeding prone figure of Tails. 

“Tails!”

He wasn’t responding or moving.

“ **Two more to go,** ” the thing cackled with a toothy grin and raised his bloodstained claws up to his lips. Then to their disgust, he licked them clean until there was no blood left behind. “ **For your sake, I hope you two will put up a much better fight than your little friend here did,** ” he gestured mockingly at the two-tailed fox in the crater, “ **He was weak!** ” before he stepped forward. “ **Pathetically so!** ” and just to add insult to injury, he kicked some dirt back into the pit then proceeded to make his way over to the two.

‘ _Did this bastard just..._ ’

Jane couldn’t believe it. This creature had the sheer audacity to taunt her and Shadow? And on top of that, mock their friend when he couldn’t even be awake to defend himself? Disrespect him by treating him like trash even?

It was infuriating.

"You..."

Feeling the sudden spike of energy next to him, Shadow turned and looked at the hybrid human warily, now noticing the ice blue glow around her body. 

“Jane…”

And just like that, something in her snapped.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Somewhere deep underground where it was damp and cold, a line of torches embedded in the cavern walls next to each dungeon cell flickered on, shining light on the various groups of occupants sitting on their chosen cots inside. 

And in one particular cell, that was covered in seals to boot, a young man with spiky hair sat with his back against the wall, eyes closed with his chained arms crossed over his chest. 

“Hey Vergil, did you feel that just now?” 

The half-devil opened his icy blue eyes and looked to his right, spotting a young woman with short dark hair and heterochromatic eyes —with blue in the right and red in the left— walking towards him.

“That surge of demonic energy you mean?” he uncrossed his arms and stared at the woman right as she sat down to him. “Yes I did, Lady. And I know who it belongs to,” he said, his voice sounding surprisingly low and tired. “It appears that someone has forced Jane to go DM.”

Lady let out a quiet laugh and shook her head in amusement. 

“Well that’s a surprise. She hasn’t used that form in years if I remember correctly.”

“Yes,” Vergil inclined his head in agreement. “Five years to be exact.”

Next to the two devil hunters, a white anthropomorphic bat with teal colored eyes sat on a cot, fiddling with the chains around her gloved hands. She looked at the duo and sighed, wondering what in the world were they talking about. 

“Hey—” before Rouge could open her mouth and ask, someone else beat her to it.

“What is this DM you two speak of? Does the initials stand for anything important?”

All three pairs of eyes looked over to the cell sitting across from theirs, with matching seals drawn onto it no less, and saw a pair of green eyes belonging to that of a long dark haired man staring right back at them from his spot on the floor. 

“Devil Mode,” the dark haired woman answered in a cautious manner, taking care not to reveal much to the Norse god.

The God of Mischief cocked his head to the side in response. He had never heard of that term before.

“Interesting.” 

Then a smile, one that spelled some kind of trouble, slowly appeared on his lips. 

“Please. Tell me more.”


	4. Chapter 4

The very next day, some time after dawn, all of the inmates were rudely awakened by the sound of footsteps followed by a door being slammed open.

Multiple pairs of eyes looked up and zeroed in on the huge canine-vulpine figure walking down the dark hall with some type of cargo in his hands, whistling a happy tune under his breath.

They thought nothing more of it, figuring that the guard was bringing some more items down to either reinforce the seals around their cells or drain their energy dry like he does every other day—when he doesn’t send someone else down to do it for him on the days he can’t that is. 

So when he passed their cells and said not a damn thing to them, the majority of the inmates went back to sleep. They didn’t want to deal with hearing the creature’s bullshit or see him taunting some other poor soul in their cell.

And they won’t.

However, the ones who decided to stay awake took a closer look at what he was carrying. 

‘ _Is that... / No way...!_ ’

Their eyes went wide in shock at the _supposed cargo_ in his arms right as the lights next to their doors flickered on when he walked past their cells.

‘ _It is!_ ’

There, hanging upside down on the tall creature’s back and being carried by his two long bushy tails, was Miles Tails Prower, beat up with his eyes closed to the world. The poor mobian fox was unconscious, unaware of the many eyes looking at him and his companions —an equally beat up Shadow the Hedgehog and a black-purple and silver humanoid dragon with yellow and various tones of blue markings in similar condition—, in complete surprise.

It was hard to believe that those two, especially the Ultimate Lifeform, from that famous mobian hero group managed to get captured by someone not named Dr. Eggman considering how strong and resilient they were. 

But the sight in front of them was very much real.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

“I can’t believe Tails and Shadow got caught by that monster too,” a feminine voice whispered. 

“Well it sucks to say this, but I guess we all got unlucky with that guy running around and capturing people or creatures of interest for god knows what,” a masculine voice said from the back wall with a huff.

“Yeah…” a pair of emerald green eyes stared worriedly at the two mobians moving farther and farther away from her and turned around, facing the one who spoke. He was a tall human with short dirty blond hair and blue eyes. And he was sitting down next to a young light blond haired, green eyed woman with pigtails, looking at the thing —a purple and pink doll with green eyes to be exact— hovering above her head in slight wonder. “We sure did get unlucky, Leon,” she said to him with a forlorn sigh. 

“Don’t worry Miss Amy,” the light blond haired woman gave her a tiny smile in reassurance. “I’m sure that once we figure something out, we’ll all be able to get out of here.” 

“And maybe kick that guy’s butt while we’re at it,” the doll added quietly with barely concealed glee.

Amy, despite her poor mood, smiled back at her cellmates and covered her mouth, hiding a giggle behind her gloved hands.

It had been at least nine days since they all arrived here together in this dungeon and even though she hadn’t known them for very long, the company of her cellmates wasn’t that bad. In fact, they were all good people.

And so polite too.

They always made sure to cheer her up whenever her mood goes south, and in return, she does the same thing for them whenever they get moody. Plus, it helped that she wasn’t alone in all of this.

...Or left to her thoughts for a long period of time, which she found was not a good thing. 

Well, in her book at least.

“I hope so, Elize. Teepo...” Amy replied to them, after moving her hands away, even though her eyes trailed over onto their last cellmate who was currently laying down on the cot in the corner. It was another human...only this one was two inches shorter than Leon and had short black hair with a single yellow tipped bang that was curved up and above his head. ‘ _And I hope you regain some of your strength and energy back soon, Wingul. You’re in much worse shape than any one of us here…_ ’ she stared at his sweating, weak form for a few moments until it became too much for her to see. ‘ _Just like…_ ’ she turned back around and looked out beyond the steel bar door, staring at the dark cell across from them, which held a sleeping huge orange fox with nine tails inside. ‘... _Just like that Vergil guy, Loki guy, and a few others in their own cells. They’re all suffering down here, and there’s really nothing much we can do to help them._ ’

Amy closed her eyes and lowered her head, hiding the expression on her face as she placed her gloved hands in her lap and balled them into fists, clenching them so tightly that fabric of the material let out a small **_squeak_** in protest.

‘ _I hate it._ ’

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Another day, another morning filled with nothing of interest or importance. How irritating. All of it was the same to Vergil. Very trying and grueling. It wasn’t going to help his overall mood improve, not while being stuck in this dreadful place and not while being stuck inside of this damn cell with a flirtatious bat and one of Dante’s friends.

While it's true that he had nothing against Mary as he had worked with her on a few demon hunting missions before, and enjoyed them with her as his partner much to his surprise, she can still be a pain in the ass to deal with sometimes.

Lucky for him, the devil huntress hasn’t bothered him that much in the short amount of time they’ve been in here. It was his other cellmate, the G.U.N. agent one, he had to worry about. Since the other night and yesterday morning, she’d been nagging him with questions left and right. And when he didn’t answer all of them and only a few just to humor her, hoping that she’d get the hint to leave him alone after that, she ignored it and tried making sweet conversations with him.

It also didn’t help that she tried to get cozy with him—and she did that by flashing smiles at him...with a compliment or two thrown in there, which he spotted a mile away. The half-devil did not appreciate that one bit, and he told her so. But in a not-so-kind manner that _nearly_ left the bat **_in tears_**. 

He knew his words had hurt Rouge because he got attacked by Mary, who overheard it all, and received hell from her. He also realized that the bat only did that because she was nervous out of her mind. And to keep her from driving him crazy with her fidgeting and stop his fellow devil hunter from glaring at him into oblivion, he sucked up his pride and apologized to Rouge.

Vergil wouldn’t admit it, but he was thankful that the atmosphere between them had settled down and went back to normal.

He also didn’t talk much after that, preferring to regain some of his energy back with little cat naps here and there.

So he left the two ladies to interact with each other instead of him, and it worked out perfectly.

Everything had been going so well for him—with the dungeon being in a state of peaceful silence and everyone minding their own business. 

...That is until he felt Jane’s aura explode. 

The sudden presence, despite how far away it was from their location, of the woman’s demonic energy had both him and Mary raising their brows. And it didn’t take that long for the whole dungeon to explode into chatter—especially after their little slip-up.

Some of them became interested in their words. However, that only happened after a _certain someone_ in the cell across from theirs opened his mouth and talked. He had no idea why the God of Thunder’s little brother wanted information on Jane’s Devil Mode, but he wasn’t going to give it to him—not after that sudden spark of emotion he caught in the god’s eyes when Mary answered his question and gave him nothing further.

The half-devil was suspicious and so was his fellow devil hunter. By acting the way they were towards Loki, it didn’t take very long for Rouge to catch what was going on, and even though he could see that she was curious as well, she wasn’t going to ask. Not while the God of Mischief was up and speaking to them. He could see that she was suspicious of the guy as well.

Vergil knew what the god was capable of, battle wise and intellectual wise, so he gave him the silent treatment. And so did Mary. They weren’t going to tell him anything personal about their friend other than what the public already knows.

After all, they had no idea what Loki wanted with Jane. And they had no idea why he tried to seek her out before New York’s invasion two years ago, which they wouldn’t have known in the first place if it hadn't been for one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top agents and Tony Stark who told them that bit of news.

“Oh no…” Rouge’s voice broke Vergil out of his thoughts. “They got caught too,” he looked up to see their giant guard dump Shadow and Jane’s bodies unceremoniously into, to his complete surprise and anger, Loki’s cell. 

“Shit!” he heard Mary quietly curse next to him. “Why did that bastard stick her in _his_ cell?”

“I don’t know! But with Loki’s other cellmates, Tony and that mysterious Jude guy, and Shadow now in there, I guess they can keep Loki from bothering her too much,” Rouge whispered to her.

‘ _Not like that’s going to stop him. That god seems to do whatever he wants,_ ’ Vergil’s eyes narrowed into slits. His body tensed when the guard turned around and walked up to their cell. ‘ _What is he—_ ’

Before any of them could react, the canine-vulpine creature opened the door and tossed Tails inside, pointing his grin and clawed finger right at him.

“Vergil!” Lady whisper-shouted in shock when the spiky white haired man crumbled to the ground in front of her, coughing up specks of blood while Rouge caught the two-tailed fox and sat him down. “Why you…” she looked up and glared at the creature right as he shut their cell door closed.

“ **Don’t think for a single moment that I didn’t notice the little bit of energy you regained back, half-demon,** ” the tall creature said, watching Vergil slowly drag himself halfway up with his head down, still coughing out blood. “ **Be thankful I’ve decided not to drain you completely of your energy like I did with the one behind me. The fool really thought he could trick me with his illusions, but it was all for naught,** ” he gestured to the cell behind him with a harsh laugh.

Vergil opened his eyes and slightly raised his head, spotting the God of Mischief —who was now a black and white hawk with green striped feathers— up ahead. He was currently out cold and sprawled on the floor next to the creator of Iron Man and Jude, who was a young man with medium-length spiky black hair and amber eyes. “ **I wouldn’t worry about that foolish Norse god. He’s alive and well...** ” the half-devil fully raised his head, wiped the blood off his chin, and gave him a blank stare all in one go. “ **Hmm, actually...not really hehe,** ” he squashed the urge to raise a brow at the tall figure’s somewhat sheepish tone. “ **Oh well, he’ll live!** ” the creature shrugged nonchalantly.

Vergil inwardly snorted. He couldn’t care less about the state Loki was in seeing as he didn’t like him very much or trust him. The guy could suffer for all he cares—especially after annoying the hell out of him and Mary yesterday, but he didn’t wish for his death knowing that there would be hell to pay from a certain older brother of Loki’s if that ever happened. He didn’t hate him enough for that.

Besides, he had other things on his mind to worry about. And the one at the forefront of his brain right now was his current situation.

‘ _This is getting ridiculous!_ ’ he growled in anger.

He was furious—no, seething on the inside at this pathetic vermin in front of him. And he was furious at himself for letting this thing beat him. Over and over again. Damn it! If only he was able to keep some of his energy from being stolen…

...If only he had Yamato on him.

...If only he wasn’t so weak and in great pain right now.

“ **Now play nice with each other, y’all. Toodles!** ”

Vergil, Lady, Rouge, and the two men watched their guard with cold eyes as he turned on his heel and left their sight, whistling that damn cheery tune of his.

‘ _Very well,_ _he’ll be the first to go once we find a way out of here,_ ’ the half-devil vowed to himself, trying but failing to wave off Mary’s concern. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was far too tired to want to argue with her or do anything else really…

Except go to sleep.

And he did exactly just that, completely missing what the devil huntress had just said to him as he felt his exhausted body fall back into hers. 

‘ _Wait..._ ’

Before he completely blacked out though, his last thoughts were:

‘ _Why does Jane’s aura feel a bit off today? There’s something different about it, but I don’t know what it is. And why does that hedgehog’s aura feel demonic when he’s no demon at all?’_

**xXXXXXXXXx**

“I told Reindeer Games that would be a bad idea, but did he listen? No, he didn’t!” the brown haired man sighed, staring at the large bird in front of him and next to Shadow and the dragon lady. “He’s just as stubborn as Point Break,” he turned his attention to the cell across from theirs to see Rouge lay Tails down on the empty cot in the corner and see Lady fussing at Vergil as she dragged him over to the wall and propped him up against it. “I have to wonder if all Asgardian Gods are stubborn or if it’s just those two brothers?” he mumbled, crossing his chained arms over his chest.

“I wouldn’t know, Tony. I don’t personally know Loki or his brother,” the black spiky haired man said with a small shrug.

Tony looked over and shook his head at Jude. 

“Oh yeah. I guess you wouldn’t, kid,” he turned his attention to the humanoid dragon in front of him, ignoring the younger man’s comment of “I told you to stop calling me that!” in favor of studying one of his new cellmates. “So this is supposed to be Jane huh? I find that hard to believe. But I did hear a weird rumor from somewhere that she can transform into a dragon demon of sorts.”

Jude said nothing and shrugged again.

“Eh, whatever. I’ll ponder on that thought later when I’m...not...so…” Tony trailed off with a yawn.

The spiky black haired man looked up to see his cellmate sit back against the wall and close his eyes. “Sleep well, Tony,” he said to the older man softly.

“Same to you, Jude.”

“Got it…” he said to himself.

Ten minutes later, after the whole dungeon became enshrouded in silent darkness, Jude closed his own eyes and went back to sleep.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Somewhere in another area...

“You sure this plan of yours is going to work?”

“..........”

Sitting high up in a large tree next to each other and hiding from the local wildlife and monsters roaming around in the swamp-like valley below them, there were two silhouetted figures. 

The shorter one had ruby red eyes and was flipping a small emerald green gem up and down in his left hand while the taller one had yellow-orange eyes shrouded in red sclera and was looking at the sun rising above the horizon in the far distance. 

“Well, Jane?” he asked, looking at the relaxed smile on his companion’s face with slight impatience.

That smile soon transformed into a fanged smirk when she turned her head and looked at him.

“Yes it will, Shadow,” the pseudo devil woman stated firmly. 

Then she turned back around to watch the view. A view that she found just as beautiful as the stars.

“The Doppelgangers are in place. Now all we have to do is just wait.”

“Good,” he said, putting his prized possession away.

“In the meantime though,” Jane turned to look at the hedgehog, taking care not to scratch the bark up with her wings as she shifted in her seat. “You wanna learn how to mix different substances and create different kinds of potions? Build something out of recyclable materials and the items lying around in this area?” she asked, grabbing his hands and squeezing them with an excited gleam in her inhuman eyes.

Shadow blinked, a bit caught off guard by her sudden mood change, and looked down at their joined hands for a few moments.

‘ _What a strange, cheerful woman Jane is,_ ’ he mused to himself with an inward sigh. ‘ _But that seems to be who she really is deep down inside. And oddly enough, I don’t have a problem with that._ ’

A small noise of amusement left his lips as he raised his head up and looked at the woman who was slowly becoming his friend.

Not that he’ll ever admit it.

...Yet. 

“Why not,” he squeezed back before letting go. “Show me what you can do.”

The smile Shadow received in return was bright enough to light up the whole sky and, apparently, his mood.

“Shadow.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m glad we’re not fighting anymore.”

—Silence—

“So am I.”

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Like many days, the God of Mischief always found himself on the edge, stuck between reality and the land of dreams. Never truly awake and never truly asleep. He always landed somewhere in the middle of the two. Every single freaking time. And he hated it, for many reasons actually. He can even think of a few at the top of his head right now: he was never really aware of his surroundings one hundred percent of the time or aware of what his cellmates were talking about the majority of the time, he never had enough seidr to do anything other than cast simple illusions either on himself or around the cell, and he was always so, so tired.

It made him cranky and, to his immerse displeasure, reckless. Now the raven haired god never considered himself to be a short-tempered person or very talkative for that matter ( _that was Thor’s sort of thing thank you very much_ ), but it seems as if something has changed here.

He's developed a little short fuse, and it has gotten worse over the long period of time he's been down here in this strange world. It also didn't help that he got stuck with a bunch of mortals and creatures he was both familiar with and not familiar with in a dingy dungeon, surrounded on all sides with their many different auras and their strange yet powerful energy sources in the dark no less. 

It made him both curious and cautious. Made him a bit claustrophobic too.

He’d be damned to admit this to anyone or out loud to himself, but he was scared. Really scared. Truthfully and rightfully so. 

Still, he would never let that fear of his control him. He refused to. 

So he squashed all of that by bugging his cellmates and everyone else in the near vicinity via sending a double in their cells through teleportation. He mocked them and riled them up in every possible way he could think of, for as long as he was able to even. And to be honest, it wasn’t much, given his weakened state and reserves of course. 

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Loki had to give credit to ones who didn’t fall for his tricks. Or his silver-tongue. They were the smart ones who didn’t budge or blink at his attempts to insult them.

But the ones who didn’t know any better or hadn’t caught onto his little game however?

Oh he went in.

It was glorious.

He took great pleasure in needling them, and he smiled wickedly when they flew into irritation—or rage. It was something that he was good at. And it was something that he did to pass the time so that he wouldn’t succumb to boredom or anger, which a few had taken advantage of already.

Like that half-demon fellow named Vergil and his Midgardian friend named Lady. It irritated the hel out of him when they wouldn’t answer his questions about Thor’s little mortal yesterday. And the two had the gall to sit there, acting all smug and having silent conversations with one another, trading sly glances in his direction every so often while he sat in the corner and drowned in his own irritation with a cloud of misery above his head.

What was so bad about wanting to find out _something_ about someone like Dr. Foster huh? It’s not like he was going to hurt the woman or anything. He merely wanted to satisfy his own curiosity and learn more about the mortal who grabbed his oaf of a brother’s attention. He had no plans for her or any ill intentions towards her—well, at least not anymore he didn’t. But in their defense, he supposed that they, along with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, didn’t know that. He could understand their concerns. 

But now that he was working alongside those heroes—as part of his punishment for attempting to take over Midgard, it wouldn’t hurt for them to drop those concerns of theirs.

‘ _They should be thankful that I’m not interested in the woman for other reasons. If I was a lesser man with not a shred of humanity in me or if I was a despicable, vile being who had questionable morals, I would’ve snatched her up and kept her for myself._ **_Break_ ** _her even. But I would **never** stoop that low. I refuse to._’

Loki opened his eyes and slowly yet carefully rolled onto his side, then stood up with little to no difficulty. 

‘ _And for those who want to think of me as such will be tossed into the void._ ’

He looked down, noticing the black and green feathers on his body instead of pale skin and the long chain —which was connected to the ground in the middle of the cell— wrapped around his stomach, then looked up. The cell around him was dark, and he could hear the soft sounds of snoring coming from Stark and Jude behind him and from somewhere nearby—probably up front and closer to the dungeon’s main door entrance.

The God of Mischief sighed, a bit disappointed that his illusion shattered the moment he got robbed of his seidr again. He knew that damn guard of theirs was the one who did it. He also knew that it was a foolish idea to ambush the creature the second he stepped inside the cell with that bat mobian’s friends and that dragon demon lady in his arms. 

Stark did try to warn him earlier, but he didn’t listen. He was just so angry, so furious at the huge canine-vulpine creature that he wanted to take a shot at him despite how weak he felt at that moment in time.

So he did. 

And to no one’s surprise, he, Loki, the God of Mischief, Lies, and Chaos, failed spectacularly. 

In the end, he got humiliated. He got drained completely of his magic and knocked face down to the ground in one hit, with his body sprawled out in front of his cellmates no less.

Hel, he literally blacked out from the attack!

And thankfully, he was only knocked out for two minutes. 

If it hadn't been the rising volume of Stark's voice, he would've stayed knocked out much longer.

“No wait…” a low voice in front of him broke the god out of his thoughts.

Loki looked up to see the humanoid dragon lady mumbling something with a small glow around her.

“...Come back pretty little stars…”

He raised an invisible brow at her strange words, and yet, they tugged at something in his brain.

‘ _I wonder…_ ’ he cocked his head to the side, staring suspiciously at the apparent dreaming dragon lady.

“No...Don’t run away…”

‘ _This voice..._ ’ curious at the scene taking place before him, Loki stalked over to her side, fully aware of Stark stirring awake behind him. ‘ _Her voice sounds a little familiar. Where have I heard it before?_ ’

“The stars…!” she mumbled in her sleep, louder this time—but not too loud.

‘ _Could this be who I think it is?_ ’ daringly, he jumped up with a quiet flap of his wings and landed on the humanoid dragon demon’s chest, making himself comfortable on his new perch seconds later. ‘ _Is this—_ ’

“What are you doing, Rock of Ages?” 

Loki wanted to laugh at the surprised tone and wariness in the man’s tired voice, but he didn’t want to wake everyone else up, so he settled with a grin instead—one that Stark couldn’t see clearly in the dark. 

“[ _Nothing nefarious I assure you, Stark. You can go back to dreamland now. I can tell that you’re practically half-asleep on your feet._ ]” 

He completely ignored the burning stare boring into the back of his head and went back to watching the dragon lady who’d stopped her mumbling and was now sleeping quietly with a peaceful look on her face. 

It won't be long until she wakes up from the pressure sitting on her chest.

And once she does, he’ll be there, looming and waiting from above.

To greet her, scare her, or peck her, that is the question here. 

“Loki…” Tony spoke lowly in warning, catching a gleam of something he didn’t like in the large bird’s green eyes, and he moved away from his spot up against the wall.

A sly smirk was the only thing the brown haired man received back in response.


	5. Chapter 5

**_ACHOO!_ **

The sudden sneeze shattered whatever shred of silence that had been shared between Jane and Shadow, as well as the wild monsters who were still lingering about in the area, hours before.

**_ACHOO!!!_ **

The second one, which turned out to be much bigger than the first, rang loud and clear over the half frozen-half running water of the river flowing through the cold swamp-like valley and the black blur leaving miniature sonic booms in his wake as he sped through the field, flinging grass and bits of what looked like snow high up into the air.

“Gesundheit!” the dark hedgehog said as he shot past his sneezing companion who was sitting on the ground a few feet away from the river. She had a small notebook in her lap and was reading something on her laptop —that she pulled out of her pocket dimension earlier— in front of her.

“Thank you,” she mumbled and turned her eyes away from the screen for a moment to reach down and open her notebook, completely ignoring the white slush that slid off her head and down her back as she jotted some words down. “Didn’t think you’d be the polite type kind of guy,” the young astrophysicist absentmindedly said as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, blinking and narrowing her eyes at what she wrote.

“I’m not,” he admitted as he blurred right past her hunched form again and, to her shock, flung a pile of snow on top of her.

Jane sighed.

‘ _Well I’m not going to get anything done at this rate,_ ’ she rolled her eyes at the rich laughter she could hear up ahead and then shook the snow off her body. “Gee, aren’t I someone special!” she closed her notebook as well as her computer and put them both away.

“You wish,” Shadow scoffed as he ran back and around her for the third time, leaving the woman’s side just as quickly as he came.

Jane said nothing and shook her head. The young hybrid woman didn’t feel like calling him out on his lie even though she would have—just to mess with him. But she wasn’t in the mood for it. And lately, she’s been feeling unenthusiastic about a lot of things for the past day or so, this morning included. She didn’t know how to feel about that. She also didn’t know how much more she’d be willing to take again. 

Earlier, she had been pumped to explore this new area and collect some rare items to build something out of them, but she just wasn’t feeling it. The most she and her companion did was pick up a few gels and tools that some of the monsters left behind on the ground or tossed into the bushes. After that, the two found a nice spot underneath a trio of small trees, which were located right next to the river, to rest at. Then she got comfortable under the shade of one of them and took out her computer to conduct some research on the stuff they collected. She searched and read for a while, and whenever she found something, she wrote it down in the little notebook she pulled out earlier as well—but not without adding her own little thoughts to it at the bottom of the pages she filled up.

She did all of this, going back and forth between her laptop and notebook, and didn’t stop until she felt a change in the weather.

Still, the young scientist was happy that she was able to get _some_ of her work done before the snow came in. And considering that she had nothing better to do now, aside from waiting on Shadow to finish the task she gave him, Jane closed her eyes and flopped back into the cold white mush.

“What the...?!” 

The ground shook a little as a subtle **_crash_** reached Jane’s ears despite how low it was. It made her ears ring a bit much to her shock. She thought furiously, her mind running amok with countless theories.

That...had never happened before, except for that one time when she stupidly stood too close to a shiny intricate bell-like object that she’d been studying and realized a little too late that it was actually a bomb. And while she came out of the situation unscathed due to the barrier she summoned in time, her ears on the other hand...not so much—but thankfully, she got it taken care of at the doctor’s office and didn’t have another incident like that since then. 

She also wasn’t going to count the time she’d been hearing things, well...voices really, when she was standing some ways outside of the Devil May Cry shop or the strange looks Trish and Lady gave her when she told them this after they got back from their mission.

So how? Why now? Why after all this time?

‘ _What is this?_ ’ 

A frown made itself way onto Jane’s face as she thought this, and without opening her eyes, she reached up and started rubbing her ears, slowly and methodically, sincerely hoping to make the pain that came along with the ringing go away. But when it didn’t, she sat up and sent some mana directly into her ears, which thankfully weren’t bleeding. At least that’s one huge thing she didn’t have to worry about.

This pain she had on the other hand though...

Dreadful, but not too dreadful to where she couldn’t handle it. The pain was...bearable to say the least. However, it didn’t make her feel any better in spite of suffering from the latter of the two.

‘ _Fuck! Why is this happening to—no wait! Scratch that! What is happening to me? That’s what I should be wondering about!_ ’ she groaned in slight frustration, miserable at the fact that she can barely hear anything right now and, at the same time, hear everything all at once. 

It was both terrifying and confusing to her. A dangerous mix of emotions for anyone to feel in this kind of problematic situation, she mused with ironic amusement. As strange as this was for her, she hoped to god that she wasn’t developing some type of ability related to her sense of hearing that she hadn’t been aware of before. Or waited until it decided to show itself now. 

The convenient timing was not lost on her or her analytical mind.

‘ _Of all the things—_ ’ 

“Stupid tree, stupid snow, stupid mysterious rock. Why am I the one doing the grunt work with spreading these markers all over the perimeter and not her?” Shadow grouched, baring his teeth at seemingly nothing in particular as he made his way back over to Jane, carrying a giant iridescent rock radiating with some type of unknown energy in his arms. “Hopefully, those doppelgangers finish whatever they need to do by the time night rolls around so we can…” he looked up and slowly stopped in his tracks. “Jane,” he said, pausing at the sight of the dark haired woman curling her arms around her knees with her head face down in between them. “What are you doing?” he called out to her, curiously.

“...Lower your voice...please.” 

Now he was confused.

“Come again?” he resumed his walk through the snow, taking note of the way the young scientist flinched the closer he got. So for her sake, he lifted his feet off the ground about an inch and hovered the rest of the way toward Jane, inwardly sighing when she stopped flinching. “What’s wrong?” he stopped in front of her sitting form.

Jane peeked up, “My ears...They’re hurting…” and put her head back down. “And ringing,” she finished miserably.

Despite how muffled her voice was, Shadow still heard her. He quietly sat the rock down and landed in the snow without a sound. Then he leaned over the hybrid woman, carefully slipping his gloved hands down in between the space of her arms and head and touched both ears. 

There wasn’t anything wrong with them from what he could tell.

“Well I don’t feel any blood, which is a good sign,” he whispered in a calm voice and searched around her ears with his fingers, “Anything else? Any pain when I do this?” then lightly pinched them.

“No.”

Shadow slipped his fingers inside and immediately felt the zing of her energy, her mana. But he still pinched her ears, lightly, nonetheless. 

“How about now?” he asked, voice still in a whisper.

Jane winced. “A little.”

His sharp eyes picked up the motion.

“So it’s hurting from the inside huh? Hmph. Strange…” he murmured, mostly to himself, and then asked her, “What did you do? Rupture your eardrum with something?”

“I’m afraid that might’ve been your doing, Shadow.”

The dark hedgehog stared at the woman. 

“How—”

“I don’t know,” Jane finally looked up again, her golden brown eyes clashing with his ruby red ones. “Did you run into something? Or perhaps you were carrying something and dropped it?” she raised a brow when the Ultimate Lifeform looked past her.

“As a matter of fact, I was carrying something.”

She followed his line of sight and spotted a meteorite with an iridescent sheen to it, purple and blue-green in color, on the ground next to them. “What’s this?” she stared at the rock in slight fascination.

“I have no idea. I found it buried in the ground at the end of this swamp valley,” he explained before slowly moving his eyes back on her. “Now about your ears…” 

“Did you finish setting up the markers so that I can activate the invisible barrier?” she quickly changed the subject.

Shadow sighed. “Yes I did.” 

The young woman said nothing as she moved one arm away from her knees and soundlessly snapped her fingers, smiling on the inside when she felt her barrier go up seconds later.

Shadow coughed low to get her attention. “Jane,” then he gave the brown-blonde haired woman a look that meant business. “You ears? And don’t you dare dodge the question this time.”

Jane shrugged to the best of her ability, “I don’t know what else to tell you, Shadow. I can’t really hear anything all that much…” and looked away. “And yet, I can hear everything from within a two mile radius. It’s honestly a little overwhelming for me to...experience...right now,” she winced again.

He looked at her with a frown. Before he could offer her any words though, they heard a slight **_crunch_** in the snow.

The two froze at the presence of three powerful auras that followed the sound soon after.

And it was coming from somewhere behind them.

“Pardon the small intrusion you two, but could one of you kindly take down this barrier so that we may pass through this area and head towards our destination,” came a soft yet polite feminine voice.

Jane could hear her heart beating wildly in her chest, and she was pretty sure that everyone else could hear it too.

‘ _What the hell? I didn’t even sense them until now! But more importantly, how the hell did they get past my barrier?!_ ’ 

**_BA-BUMP..._ **

She was, without a doubt, in deep shock. And even though it wasn’t shown on his face, Jane could tell that Shadow was in the same shocked state that she was in right now. He was startled. Then, a millisecond later, he immediately became on guard, flashing behind her back without warning and without so much as batting an eye at her.

“At ease, young mobian. We mean you and your friend no harm,” said a deep and rich masculine voice.

**_BA-BUMP…_ **

**_BA-BUMP…_ **

“You sure about that?” she heard the suspicious tone in Shadow’s low speaking voice. “Your other friend there is acting a bit funny.”

**_BA-BUMP...BA-BUMP…_ **

“Tsk. Stop wasting our time, hedgehog. Just mind your own business and move out of our way,” an annoyed yet deep and low masculine voice retorted.

**_SMACK!_ **

“Would you please shut the hell up before you make everything worse! Hey umm...sorry about my cousin there, he can get a little impatient and crabby sometimes,” the second voice, being the feminine one, apologized to Shadow.

“Look who’s talking, little brat. You’re the one with the short temper around here. Not me!”

“Why you—”

“Enough you two,” the first voice immediately silenced his two loud companions. “We didn’t come here to argue or cause any trouble for the mobian and the woman in front of us.”

**_BA-BUMP...BA-BUMP…_ **

**_BA-BUMP..._ **

“Right. Sorry Leader-sama,” the second and third voices apologized in low unison.

‘ _Leader-sama...?_ ’ Jane and Shadow repeated in their minds.

**_BA-BUMP…_ **

“Please excuse my colleague and his cousin’s insubordination, it has been a long and tiring morning for the both of them. But I still find that that’s no excuse for them to act like complete fools in front of other people...and in the presence of potential new comrades no less. Furthermore, I can see that your friend there looks to be in pain. So for her sake, we will lower our voices. Is that acceptable for you, young mobian?”

**_BA-BUMP…_ **

Jane raised a brow at the mysterious man’s choice of words.

‘ _Well he sure has a way with words I’ll give him that. He sounds like someone who demands a lot of respect, someone who is quite intimidating and terribly polite._ ’ 

It’s strange but his attitude actually reminds her of...well...

...A certain someone she knows all too well. 

Goddamn. Who would’ve thought there would be two of them.

“It’s fine,” Shadow carefully said in response to the man’s secondhand apology.

Jane sighed at the situation she and Shadow landed themselves in. She finally turned around and looked past the hedgehog’s quilled back, taking in the three newcomers who’d intruded on her and Shadow’s resting spot.

The three sported thick long black and white hooded cloaks that covered everything up except for their eyes, ankles and feet. The tallest figure, who looked about three-and-a-half inches taller than her and was male in stature, had one of the most fascinating pairs of eyes that Jane’s ever seen before in her whole life. They were a beautiful shade of purple and lavender with many rings surrounding the irises, and he had what looked to be piercings down the sides of his nose while the second tallest one, who looked about two inches taller than her and was male in stature as well, had grayish-brown eyes with a hint of yellow in them and had what looked like red highlights on the sides of them too. And finally, the last figure, who looked about an inch shorter than the second figure and was female in stature, had jade green eyes with a hint of yellow in them. She, too, had the same colored highlights on the sides of her eyes like the second figure did.

Also, judging from their aura alone, all of them were insanely powerful, especially the tall one with the unique eyes.

' _I could totally be wrong though. I won't know until I see all of them in action, but first..._ '

She narrowed her eyes at them.

“How about you take your hoods off and introduce yourselves first. Then, and only then, if you all prove that you mean my friend and I no harm, I will think about taking this barrier down. Deal?” the young astrophysicist bargained as she slowly got to her feet.

Lavender-purple ringed eyes shot in her direction and stared at her intently and curiously. There was a peculiar look on his face now. It was as if he was acknowledging her and digging for _something_ inside of her at the same time.

What that something was, she didn’t know or want to find out. It made her feel, well, weird. 

And she didn’t know how to feel about that.

“Deal,” the cloaked leader finally said after a minute or two had passed, much to the surprise of the cloaked woman and the look the second cloaked man gave him.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Meanwhile, back down in the dark, cold dungeon…

Loki was having the time of his life taunting the Man of Iron. He could tell that Stark was getting increasingly agitated with him the longer he sat oh-so comfortably on top of the unconscious dragon lady’s chest, as if he was a king sitting on his throne and mocking one of his subjects or something. It was a shame that neither one of them could do anything without waking up their other cellmates or the people in the cell across from theirs. Or even the ones up near the front.

For now, he’ll just settle with annoying the man to death by flicking tiny pebbles, which were on the ground nearby the woman’s body, at him with his wings.

Or he could just preen his feathers again like he did about two hours ago.

After all, he was in the presence of a lady. An attractive lady, despite her appearance and the bloody injuries covering her draconian body, at that.

“Loki, for the last and final time, get off of her.”

The large bird turned his head and stared down his beak at the Avenger, spying those clenched fists of his hanging still at his side. He knew the dark haired man wanted to hit something—or possibly choke him if he were to go by the twitch he saw in Stark’s fingers earlier, and that was before the man clenched them in restraint.

“[ _You know, Stark..._ ]” Loki began with a low drawl. “[ _It’s a bit strange that you’re worried about a mere woman who’s practically a demon and a stranger to the both of us..._ ]” he paused but then smirked when his keen eyes caught sight of the mortal’s narrowed eyes and minuscule frown. “[ _It’s not as if you know her or anything do you?_ ]”

He got his answer in the form of silence. But it wasn’t just that though. No, it was the way Stark narrowed his eyes even further.

If looks could kill, he, the God of Mischief, would be completely dead on the spot.

“[ _Actually..._ ]” he quietly yet happily chirped when a thought crossed his mind. Then with a grin, he cooed—literally **cooed** at the irritated man. “[ _If you don’t mind, dear Anthony, you can put that anger of yours to good use and come up with a way to get us out of here and take vengeance on that creature while I'll stay put right here and take first watch. What do you say my friend?_ ]”

Oh yes, Stark definitely looked like he wanted to kill him now. And for many reasons too.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

The air was clouded with suspense. There was so much of it that Jane could hardly breathe.

But she was waiting.

Her friend was waiting.

They were both waiting for something—anything to happen.

She was just so anxious about these new people. She wondered what their motives were. Or at least, she was wondering what the leader’s motive was. The young woman knew the guy with the unique eyes wasn’t lying when he mentioned something about being in the presence of potential new comrades. 

What did he mean by that anyway? Did he see them as someone he should ally himself with?

Not that she minded of course! There could be some benefit to this seeing as her and her friend _might_ need some assistance for this mission.

But still...she just met them. They were mere strangers to her and Shadow! She couldn't trust them. At least, not yet. 

She wants to get to know them first before she even thinks about offering the trio an alliance. Lord knows she wasn’t going to accept the man’s words just like that and not question him despite believing him on the spot. It would be quite careless of her if she didn’t.

‘ _You know, I feel like I have seen those eyes before. But where?_ ’ Jane observed the tallest of the trio closely with narrowed eyes. 

And with bated breath, she stood completely still as the man finally reached up and pulled his hood down.

‘ _What the...!_ ’ 

His hair, spiky in fashion, was a beautiful shade of orange, the kind that reminded her of an evening sunset.

‘ _Oh my god!_ ’

And there were a whole lot more piercings on his face than what she’d expected—seven on each ear and the snake bite under his bottom lip. But somehow, they suited him and complimented his features.

It especially complimented his lavender-purple ringed eyes that were still staring into hers. 

“I am Pein.”

**xXXXXXXXXx**

At the sharp intake of breath coming from behind him, Shadow slightly turned his head and saw the shocked, wide-eyed look on Jane’s face. A frown appeared on his lips as he turned his attention back on the spiky ginger haired man in front of him. 

‘ _Does she know this guy?_ ’ he cocked his head to the side, observing the man with wary eyes.

“My name is Akasuna no Sasori,” the second guy said.

“And mine’s Sakura Haruno,” the woman said.

The dark hedgehog turned to the remaining duo to see them drop their hoods as well. Messy bright locks of short red hair that partially covered his pointy ears and long pink hair with what looked like huge griffin ears on top of them greeted his eyes.

‘ _Hmph._ _What a colorful bunch of...interesting individuals we have here,_ ’ Shadow said in slight amusement before he felt Jane get up.

“Nice to meet you three. I’m Jane Foster,” she introduced herself. “But you can call me Jane.”

“And I’m Shadow,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Shadow the Hedgehog.”


	6. Chapter 6

Pretending to lose the battle so that she and her friends can get drained of their energy and kidnapped afterwards took almost no effort on their part. It had been so easy to fool the creature, and it had been so easy for her to fake staying out cold. Though, she only did this to get an idea of where the creature was taking her and her friends. She wanted to know the location of where all three of them were going, but she didn't want to risk getting caught by the creature.

So she just left it alone and continued her act. 

Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long because the creature mumbled " **Here we are** " to himself. And when he started making his way down some...stairs it seems ( _at least that's what it sounded like to them_ ), she finally took the chance and opened her eyes just a slit.

To her surprise, that location turned out to be a dungeon.

The doppelganger closed her eyes and concentrated. There were a lot of people she felt down here. Some were even familiar to her too.

But the others? Not so much.

She heard their whispers right before the creature walked past their cells, and they grew louder once he made it towards the end of the dungeon and stopped.

It took all of her willpower to not react when the creature threw her and Shadow in a cell that held three other people in it, and it took all of strength not to open her eyes when she heard the creature taunt someone in a cell across from her and her cellmates. She even held herself back from growling when she heard the creature toss Tails in there too and left.

By that point, she was too drained to really do anything...except listen in on the conversation that floated around her.

And it didn't take her very long to notice who was all down here in this dungeon. 

Lady, Vergil, and Rouge were all here along with some man named Jude, Tony Stark, and Loki. Now those last two completely stumped her.

How they managed to get themselves kidnapped she had no idea. But it must’ve been bad for them.

Yet she on the other hand found it extremely hilarious. 

The doppelganger had no idea how long she and the other two had been down here, but she could tell that some time had passed. Six hours top maybe, she mused to herself. 

Without even opening her eyes, she knew her friend woke up and that was just from the feel of his aura alone.

She also knew the dungeon was _dark_. There was no source of light shining in this place, and that suited her just fine. She loved the darkness. Thrived in it really!

She had the advantage of surprise here. 

“You’re making it really hard for me to tolerate your presence here, Reindeer Games,” came Tony’s voice.

And speaking of surprises, she didn’t expect a certain someone to take a seat on her chest. That confused her and annoyed the living hell out of her. What did she look like? A couch or something? She didn’t think so.

“[ _Well that’s a shame to hear, Stark,_ ]” said a nonchalant Loki.

Plus, what made it worse was that he was doing it on purpose—more than likely trying to piss her and Tony off. He was probably trying to entertain himself to rid off any boredom that he might’ve had earlier too.

And if that was the case then...

“Huh? / [ _Well I’ll be, it looks she’s finally waking up,_ ]” the two men uttered in unison.

God or not, Loki better hope and pray that he’ll be ready to meet these fists of hers once she gets up.

“[ _Now I shall—_ ]”

Doppelganger Jane cut him off by snapping her eyes open. “You shall do what?” she glared hard at the green eyes blinking down at her. “And why the hell are you sitting on my chest?” 

Loki then smiled at the dragon lady. “[ _Why hello there, Miss. Did you sleep well?_ ]” he asked, smoothly side-stepping her question.

The young scientist slowly sat up, making the bird slide off her chest and straight into her lap, and looked down at the bastard trying to charm her. The bird sure had a silver-tongue on him that’s for sure.

“You...”

“[ _I’m Loki. You may have heard of—_ ]”

**_KAPOW!_ **

She ignored Tony’s sudden ring laughter when the giant bird flew into the air and crashed into the wall up ahead with an audible yet comical splat, waking everyone up in the near vicinity. 

“That was for New York!”

A slight groan of pain escaped from the God of Mischief’s beak as he shook his head, coughing and flinging the small pieces of debris and dust off his body. “[ _Oooh, feisty aren’t you?_ ]” he chuckled in between coughs and looked at the fidgeting dragon demon. 

Doppelganger Jane looked away and balled her claws in her lap. “Can it, asshole!” she bit back with a low growl. “I’ve heard plenty about you!”

‘ _My, my, what a vulgar woman this one is..._ ’ Loki chuckled again. “[ _And yet I don’t know a single thing about you,_ ]” then he looked at her with a small twinkle in his green eyes. “[ _Won’t you grant me the pleasure of knowing your name, Miss?_ ]”

“..........”

“[ _Well?_ ]”

A sigh of frustration left her lips. “You may call me Lady Shadow-wing,” she mumbled while turning her back to him. Then she wrapped her wings around her whole body and fell silent, signifying that she was completely done with this conversation.

Loki raised an invisible brow at the dragon lady in front of him and shook his head with a low amused huff. 

‘ _Try and deflect me all you want, my dear, but I will find out your real name soon enough._ ’

His eyes flashed with promise as he thought this.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Vergil studied the devil lady sitting in front of the door, growling under her breath with her head down and her wings partially closed around her, very closely. There was a lot of tension he could see in the young woman’s body, which was rolling off her in waves, waves that felt both familiar to him and oddly warped to him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she wanted to be left alone, that she didn’t want to talk to anyone.

Yet despite that, he could tell that she wanted to vent out her frustrations. Desperately too. It was all in her eyes.

‘ _You can’t do much venting without attracting unwanted attention, and that’s the last thing some of us down here needs,_ ’ the spiky haired half-devil frowned in distaste. And honestly, he did not blame her for being frustrated. Or being in a foul mood. There was a lot to be frustrated about. And in her case, most of it had to do with who she got stuck with in the cell. 

So no, Vergil didn’t blame her for being angry at all. If given the chance, he, too, would’ve punched that annoying bird clear across the room and then some.

“Jane looks to be in one of her ‘ _leave me alone_ ’ and ‘ _don’t talk to me_ ’ moods,” Lady commented.

Vergil held back a sigh.

“She is,” he simply answered, then sat up from the floor with a stretch.

“Great. I bet Loki pissed her off too. I heard him earlier,” she groaned, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.

Vergil hned. “More like he pissed off the clone version of her,” he mumbled under his breath, finally coming to the conclusion of why the woman’s aura felt so conflicting to him. It was a mixture of her aura and someone else’s. It was so painfully obvious now. He should’ve noticed it the moment she got down here. Yet he didn’t. 

Of course he had his suspicions earlier. He just wasn’t sure of it at the time. Was it wrong for him to want some confirmation—just to relieve those suspicious thoughts of his? No, it wasn’t. He was just being cautious that’s all. 

But now, he has confirmation. He can rest easy knowing that someone wasn’t trying to deliberately fool him with the intention of harming him while wearing his friend’s face. It’s also one less thing for him to worry about. 

Still, it begs the question of where did she find the time to learn this move. Did Dante teach it to her when he and the others weren’t around?

“What clone?” Rouge spoke up with a whisper.

Due to sitting in-between the half-devil and bat mobian, Lady clearly heard them both.

“Hmm?” the devil huntress turned to Vergil with a confused look in her heterochromia eyes. “Clone?” she repeated in a low voice. Then with a blink of an eye, the young woman snapped her head in the dragon woman’s direction and nearly gave herself a whiplash in the process. “Are you trying to tell me that’s not the real Jane over there?” she asked in an even lower voice, incredulously, as if she couldn't believe the devil-turned scientist across from them was fake.

“Yes,” Vergil replied. “That is Doppelganger, a.k.a. Deathvoid. And Shadow over there is a doppelganger as well,” he explained to the ladies quietly. “This tells me that those two haven’t been captured yet and are still out there, somewhere.”

“Okay, I get that part,” Lady said. “But what I want to know is where the heck did she find the time to learn that technique?”

“I was wondering the same exact thing a second ago.”

Rouge looked back-and-forth between the two devil hunters, a little more than confused with the current conversation at hand here. 

“I would ask but I’ll take a guess and say that this is not the proper time or place to discuss this subject anything further.”

Lady side-eyed her. “Yeah, let’s just drop it for now,” she said.

Next to the devil huntress, Vergil grunted in agreement.

‘ _They seem to have some plan in mind and a possible way to get out of this place,_ ’ the trio thought to themselves in unison, figuring that it would be best not to ask the doppelgangers and just let them do their thing. 

Because trying to get an answer out of them will only lead to questions, questions that will more than likely stir some uproar and cause whoever was watching them to come down here and demand what’s going on. They can’t have that happening. Not while there's a window of opportunity to escape from this place.

For now, they will sit there and be patient.

And wait for some kind of signal from the doppelgangers, should the two give them any, if they have to.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Unknown to her cellmates as well as Vergil and his cellmates, the doppelganger was silently communicating to someone outside of this dungeon through her mind, which was currently connected to theirs.

‘ _It’s been years since I’ve used this particular magic technique to talk to anyone...unless it’s under special circumstances, to which...I guess this would count as one, right?_ ’ before she could get the chance to respond, the voice continued. ‘ _So anyway, Doppelganger, what's the situation like down on you and your partner’s end?_ ’ 

‘ _We’re in some kind of dungeon, Jane. And right now, I think my partner is keeping an eye out on things while pretending to be unconscious still. We also found Vergil, Lady, and Rouge down here too. They’re in a jail cell of sorts, with seals plastered on them, across from mine. Tails got thrown in there with them while my partner and I got stuck in a cell with Iron Man, Thor’s little brother, and some human male with spiky black hair and amber eyes._ ’

‘ _I see..._ ’ the young astrophysicist said. ‘ _That’s, uhh, wow. I didn’t even know those two were missing as well. I know that’s gonna cause some trouble for the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.—_ ’ 

‘ _If it hasn’t already,_ ’ Doppelganger pointed out, cutting the young woman off.

‘ _Yeah, I guess that’s true. What a freaking mess,_ ’ Jane sighed. ‘ _Anyway, try to see if you can find a weakness or a way around the seals, then slip past them, and distract the guards—or take them out if you like while Shadow and I along with our guests find your guys’ location._ ’

‘ _Guests?_ ’ she inquired.

‘ _Yeah, we were approached by three people earlier. And after some negotiation, Shadow and I have decided to team up with them. In fact, we’re just sitting in a cave and doing nothing right now._ ’

‘ _What happened?_ ’ Doppelganger asked.

‘ _A blizzard that’s what. The weather had been fine...up until thirty minutes ago, that is. And it only got worse from there,_ ’ Jane grouched.

‘ _That sucks..._ ’ was the only thing the demon was able to get out.

‘ _Yeah, well, after this blizzard dies down, we will start our search._ ’

‘ _Alright. Give me a couple of hours and I’ll find a way to destroy these seals and release the others from their cells._ ’

‘ _That’s fine. Just update me on your progress once you get the chance. Later!_ ’ 

Doppelganger said nothing as she felt the young woman shut the link off between them. With a small sigh, the demon lowered her wings and raised her head up. She looked around and noticed that her cellmates were minding their own business. Vergil and his cellmates were too, with the exception of Tails, who was just now starting to wake up.

And since she had nothing better to do, other than wait for her demonic energy to come back of course, she figured that mediating might help pass the time a bit.

‘ _Yes, that’s what I’ll do._ ’

A tiny smile slowly appeared on Doppelganger Jane’s face as she stood to her feet and stretched her limbs, wings, and long tail. After that, she sat back down and crossed her legs then immediately laid her clawed hands on top of them. Without a word, the dragon demon lowered her horned head, closing her eyes as she did so, and retreated deep into herself.


	7. Chapter 7

Later that evening when the cave was nearly empty and quiet and the crazy weather had settled down, Jane was approached by a visitor.

**_BOREEEEE!_ **

The astrophysicist looked up, startled by the sudden sound. Her eyes widened when they clashed with familiar green-blue ones.

“Oh! It’s you!” she said, blinking in surprise at the transparent orange-red fox hovering five feet away from her.

The lesser spirit nodded with a happy chirp.

Jane couldn’t help the smile that grew on her lips as the fox spirit moved closer and started circling around her head.

“What are you doing here, little one?” she asked, her eyes following his floating form.

The transparent fox came back around towards the front and stopped. Then the lesser spirit started waving its paws around, making a few chirps and gestures with its tail here and there as it explained its purpose for being here.

Jane hummed and said “uh-huh” every few seconds or so. She was so deeply invested in the creature’s tale that she didn’t notice a curious pinkette coming over to her side. 

The older woman looked at Jane then at the small spirit. Milliseconds later, she looked back at the younger woman and stared at her in a new light this time, green-yellow eyes narrowed in keen interest. Instead of saying anything, however, Sakura just quietly stood back and watched the two with her arms crossed over her chest.

“You ran into a spiky orange haired spirit and he told you to come here, fetch us, and lead us over to him? Then he told you go find a red haired guy and Shadow and bring them over to him too? I believe that’s what you’re telling me, right?” Jane repeated what she heard from the lesser spirit and saw it nod its head in confirmation. “Wait...” she blinked, a bit puzzled at the thought that just flew through her head right now. “Pein’s a spirit? What?” 

Before the fox spirit could even open its mouth to speak, Jane shook her head and continued speaking. 

“Nevermind. Thanks for relaying the message to me.”

The lesser spirit nodded and turned around, gesturing for the two ladies to follow it.

“Hold on one moment,” Jane halted the creature with a raised finger. “Thanks!” she dropped it once she saw the spirit obeyed her and reached down to collect the rock, which she’d decided to keep, and her stuff that she pulled out earlier—and had been working on before she got interrupted. “Okay! This goes here and that goes—no wait…” she trailed off in a quiet ramble, storing all of her belongings in her personal pocket dimensions. She stashed the strange iridescent meteorite in a brand new pocket that was separate from the one that held her usual things in it while the pinkette worked on putting the fire out in the back.

_**BOREE?** _

“Okay! Now I’m ready,” Jane stood up and looked behind her to see the taller woman crushing the last of the firewood to smithereens under her boot. “You?” she asked.

Sakura looked up, “Yep!” and walked over to her side. “Let’s go.”

The lesser spirit turned and flew out of the cave into the snow, disappearing behind the corner of the wall afterwards.

“So you can see lesser spirits and understand them?” the pinkette asked in a conversational voice as she and the brown-blonde haired woman ran out of the cave and down the mountain trail after the transparent fox’s retreating form.

Jane looked at the woman running by her side.

“Yes,” she replied. “How about you?” 

Sakura nodded.

“It’s actually natural for me and my cousin since we’re both half-spirits,” she said, catching the surprised look on the younger woman’s face out of the corner of her eye. “Though I have to say...not many creatures or humans can see lesser spirits,” she began in a nonchalant voice, “Feel them? Yes. Connect and communicate with them on some small level? Yes. But see them and understand them—their language I mean? No. It’s practically unheard of,” until her eyes flickered over to Jane’s. “You on the other hand, who is a mere human, can. And I find that pretty damn amazing!” she finished in a praise.

A small blush dusted the young woman’s cheeks at the level of excitement she could hear in the older woman's voice.

“Thanks,” she quickly ducked her head and looked away. “I've been able to see them and understand them and their language completely for as long as I could remember. Since I was a little girl—eight years old I think,” she added in a low voice.

"Eight years old?" Sakura repeated with a curious tilt of her head, and at her nod of confirmation, she gave the dark brown-blonde haired woman an inquisitive look. “I see. Very interesting I must say,” she stated quietly. ‘ _This kid doesn’t realize how lucky she is to have such a truly unique gift that many others would kill for._ ’

Jane blinked, "Huh?" and looked at the woman. She was quite puzzled by the pinkette's comment.

The cloaked woman shook her head, telling the younger woman that it was nothing. 

Jane stared at her for what seemed like hours before she said "alright" and turned her attention back on the trail. 

Sakura also turned back around and focused her eyes on the lesser spirit flying way ahead of them.

“We gotta hurry up, Jane,” she channeled some mana into her feet, and in seconds, she shot down the mountain in a flash to catch up with the fast creature. 

And not a second too soon, the pinkette heard Jane do the same behind her.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

When they reached the bottom and shot through the swamp valley that was connected to the mountains, the first thing the ladies saw once they reached the exit was rain. 

Not snow, but rain. 

And there was a lot of it judging from the giant puddle forming on the ground in front of them.

"That's strange. How did we go from a blizzard to this?" Jane made a gesture of confusion while eyeing the droplets falling sideways from the storm clouds up in the dark sky. “Huh?” she suddenly blinked when one landed on her forehead and flinched.

Sakura merely raised her arm, letting a few drops fall into her hand—that was covered by a metal plated black and white glove with a gold ring underneath it and had a red gem on each side of the white cuff.

_**ZIIIIINNG!** _

' _Oh!_ ' 

The older woman immediately felt an invasive force flow through her. And it didn't feel hostile to her whatsoever. 

"Well I might have an idea..." she offered vaguely. "But I won't know until I see some clear-cut evidence!" she quickly added, and sighed something unintelligible under her breath that made Jane very suspicious.

' _An idea huh?_ ' the young woman raised a brow at the look on the pinkette's face. ' _Something tells me she knows who's behind this storm,_ ' she theorized. ' _I can barely see it, but it's there. The answer's in her eyes, and yet, I can't tell what she's exactly feeling right now._ '

"So..." Sakura's voice broke her out of her thoughts. "Shall we check the next area out and see what's what?"

"It wouldn't hurt I guess," she replied. ' _She's good. Real good._ ' 

"Alright then," was all Sakura responded with.

The two quickly fell silent, then shared a brief nod of understanding afterwards, and walked through the exit.

The lesser spirit, who'd been silent this whole time, followed seconds later.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

A flash of lightning lit up the dark rainy sky and the whole area, surrounding everything except for the three figures who walked through the dark gap, with a tall tree void of their leaves on either side of them, in a shimmering light blue glow.

"Whenever there's lightning..." Jane raised her head and squinted through the heavy rain to see the clouds flashing and crackling up a storm.

_**BOOM!** _

"There's thunder," Sakura finished for her, not even fazed by downpour or the light show in the sky in the slightest. "And of course _he_ would be behind all of this," she looked ahead and stared at something in the distance.

"Who?" Jane followed her line of sight and blinked in surprise. "Oh..." she breathed in realization, suddenly feeling herself rooted on the spot.

There, up on a cliffside overlooking a green field that was slowly beginning to fill up with water and had tall wildflowers blooming around odd-looking boulders scattered throughout the area, was Pein. He was standing three feet away from the edge with his back facing towards them, looking at something in the sky from what it seems while flexing his hands.

Although she couldn't see the expression on his face at this angle, Jane just knew he was feeling a little content right now. 

The guy was not happy, but he pleased. Very pleased. He was at peace.

She had no idea why but seeing Pein standing there so calmly in the rain and doing nothing, just watching the lightning flashing through the cluster of clouds and the rain falling hard from the sky, sent an odd feeling of peace through her too.

Maybe, just maybe, it was him. It was his doing, Jane mused as she continued to observe the spiky orange haired spirit's behavior. It was certainly interesting to note that he didn't mind getting soaked by the rain. Or that he wasn't bothered by it when most people and other creatures would be and would run for the hills to get to some kind of shelter. 

But no, he was different. Hell, even the pink haired half-spirit was different too.

And that wasn't a bad thing at all in her book. 

Different is good. Why, it can even be exciting at times.

Still, it felt surreal to be in the presence of two people who were supposedly fictional characters from a popular manga and anime series in her universe.

‘ _Hmm..._ ’ however, there was something different here, she mused even further.

Maybe in another universe, they're not fictional characters. 

Maybe they are real. And it’s possible that these people lived their lives differently compared to the ones she's read in the manga and watched from the show. It certainly appeared to be that way given their different looks and personalities, she hummed to herself and continued her study of the two.

' _I can actually see that they're not from around here now. And since they are in fact from a whole another universe entirely, I’m going to assume that traveling from one dimension to another is so easy and possible after all. It can be accomplished._ '

And, considering that the theory of multiverse is true, this also told her that these two and Sasori were just as real as her. 

Real to look at.

Real to sense—

' _Huh?_ ' Jane looked over to Sakura.

And apparently, real to touch if the sudden brush of mana from the pinkette, who gave her a pointed look in return, was any indication.

' _Oh..._ ' 

A wave of sheepishness washed over the young woman as she mouthed "sorry" to Sakura.

The pinkette said nothing and just nodded her head in response before moving her attention onto Pein.

"Hey Pein, what about—

"Do not worry about the lesser spirit, Sakura. He will be fine," he said, interrupting the half-spirit woman. “Just leave him be and let him do his duty.”

"Okay," she mumbled back.

The young astrophysicist blinked then looked up just in time to see the spirit's lavender-purple ringed eyes land on her. And right before she could open her mouth to say something, he turned away, leaving his back to them once again, and neatly laced his hands together behind him.

"Come you two. Join me."

Jane looked behind her only to see the transparent fox wave at her, turn around, and fly back the way they came in through. She turned her head back around and caught the flash of pink as Sakura wordlessly strolled past her frozen form and up the cliff. Jane sighed and, with a low unintelligible grumble, followed behind.

Once they reached Pein, the two split up and stood on either side of him. Jane on his right with Sakura on his left.

The trio all stood there on the cliffside in complete silence, just taking in the sounds of nature around them. This continued on for about three minutes until...

"The rain can have a calm and soothing effect on an individual, no?"

Jane didn't bother looking in Pein's direction when she closed her eyes and said, "Sometimes..." now feeling both his and his companion's eyes on her, she elaborated on her answer. "Yes, it can be calm and soothing on some days, but there are times where I feel like the rain makes us so sad and miserable. The same can be said for any atmosphere that’s been left tainted from the tragedies that took place beforehand. Then it would rain for hours upon hours or even days on end,” she opened her eyes back up. “On those days, it feels...the world feels like it's drowning."

"True. I can definitely see where you're coming from, Jane, but the rain can also help or relieve stress in many ways," Sakura spoke up. "Just to name a few: the rain be used as a tool to help release the pain one is feeling on the inside and hide away the tears they shed from their eyes, the rain can clear the dirty air and make it smell clean for days, and the rain can make the seeds that were planted in their gardens beforehand grow into beautiful flowers or food that can later be picked, cleaned, and eaten."

"You both made some excellent points."

The two ladies looked up.

"To add upon that even further, there is the belief that the rain serves as God's tears. It's as if God was crying along with his children, sharing their pain and empathizing with them in those tragic times," Pein continued. "Whether or not there’s some truth to that belief remains to be seen. Just know that the sight of rain on most days, even if it may seem much to you or if it turns into a storm, is not always a bad thing. It can be a good thing, Jane," he explained to the scientist, turning his eyes to her. "In fact, the rain heals wherever and whatever it touches. And like Sakura said, the rain soothes the pain in those who cannot always express it outwardly like others can."

"I understand," Jane solemnly nodded.

"Is that why it tends to rain on the days funerals are held? I've always wondered about that sometimes," Sakura asked quietly.

"Perhaps..." he answered solemnly, his voice just as quiet.

Jane looked between the two of them, sensing that there was some kind history behind the pinkette's question. But considering the nature of it and how personal it sounded, she wasn't going to pry.

“Sakura?”

Suddenly, the half-spirit woman broke out into shivers.

' _Oh! She's cold!_ ' right as Jane was about to change the temperature around the older woman, someone else took action.

' _Oh my god!_ '

The rain was no longer pouring over their heads or their bodies. It was falling around them, not touching them at all to her surprise. 

They were also no longer wet or cold. They were completely dried off and warm now.

‘ _Oooh!_ ’

An excited gleam entered her golden brown eyes when Jane realized who did it, and in less than a second, she immediately turned on her heel to face the tall ginger haired spirit. "You did this? You can manipulate the weather and its temperature?" 

"Pein's a Great Spirit. His control over storms and the weather is really astounding. God-like even. And comparable to none that I know of," Sakura answered instead. 

' _A Great Spirit? So that means he is the Great Spirit of Weather and Storms huh?_ ' she narrowed her eyes. "God-like huh? Does that make you a god then?" Jane challenged, ignoring the choked gasp from Sakura.

Pein looked at her as if he was amused by her question.

"The common people, animals, and other creatures view me as one. However..." the spiky ginger haired spirit turned his eyes up to the sky. "If you were to ask me that personally, I am just a spirit. A powerful great spirit whose will and control are absolute. I am a man of many things. But a god is not one of them," he said honestly. Then in a low solemn voice, he finished with, "Not in this life."

Jane was left speechless.

Sakura though...

"Never in my life have I ever heard you say that. Or admitted something truthful yet personal about yourself in my presence, let alone hers. And she's new!"

"You, Haruno, are somewhat an exception..." his eyes bypassed an incredulous pinkette and turned to Jane. "And I have a feeling that Miss Foster here is capable of catching any lies, should I let one or two of them slip from my mouth so carelessly, with a quickness."

She smiled. "Smart man. How did you know?"

"I didn't. I just get that sense of feeling from you," he looked at her more closely now. "But now that you've confirmed it...I take it that you have a gift? Or…” he paused, tilting his head slightly, very slightly, to the side. “You're just very perceptive. More so than most people I assume."

Her smile widened. "Try both instead. I'm an emphatic." 

Now he looked mildly interested. 

"On what level? Is your control strong, moderate, or weak?"

"High. And borderline strong."

"Ah," Pein said in understanding, a bit impressed with the woman—or about as impressed as he can get with anyone, and turned back to the sky.

The conversation between them died after that. And silence settled in once again.

It wasn't until about ten minutes later, their peace was interrupted in the forms of the lesser spirit, Sasori, and Shadow.

"Alright! We're here now. What is it you want, Leader-sama?" the red haired half-spirit asked. 

Pein sighed low under his breath while the two ladies removed themselves from his side to stand by the others.

"Patience Sasori," he simply said, then turned around and released his hands from behind his back. “I have found something that may benefit our search.”

When he reached into his cloak and pulled out a small iridescent rock, the majority of the group was left confused except for Jane—to which the young hybrid woman gasped and drew everyone’s attention to her. They looked at her in confusion until she pulled out a similar rock, only it was bigger in size.

“Shadow found this earlier this morning,” she looked up and held the giant iridescent rock higher for them to see. “It was in the swamp valley, near the end of it in fact!” Jane explained, looking at Sakura, Sasori, and Pein. “I didn’t get a chance to study it that much back in the cave we rested at. But from the small bit of information I was able to gather, this strange meteorite is radiating some high levels of, I wanna say, kinetic energy. And I guess it explains why this rock has an iridescent sheen to it. The energy within this thing is always moving around, never pausing or stopping its flow of movement completely. I’m sure you all can feel it inside just a little bit, right?”

They, except for Pein, reached out with their own energy to probe at the rock and paused. Then seconds later, they nodded their heads.

“What I also discovered is that when this rock is physically exposed to another energy source, let’s just say mana for example...” Jane channeled some of her mana into the rock, and right before their eyes, it let out a low chime-like sound before glowing blue. “It makes a sound and it glows bright, turning a blue color.”

“That’s amazing! I have never seen a rock like this before!” Sakura said in slight awe, staring at the glowing meteorite even as she heard it chiming softly.

Jane nodded. “Think of it like a person or an object tapping on a bell softly and that’s what you get.”

“What else does it do?” both Shadow and Sasori asked.

“The rock can levitate when it glows a different color. Its chime changes in response to that as well.”

All five of them looked up and over to Pein, and once he had their attention, the ginger haired spirit channeled his mana, a lot more than Jane did into hers, into the small rock in his hand. 

They didn’t have to wait long as the meteorite glowed a white color, its chime ringing loud and clear.

Very loud to be exact. 

Then he let go of the rock and it hovered in the air before him, still glowing brightly and chiming loudly.

“To expand upon Jane’s information, the more energy you channel into this rock the brighter it glows and the louder it chimes. Depending on the amount of energy you give it, the rock is granted the ability of movement. And since I gave it a lot of my energy, the rock is now glowing white and ringing like a gong bell while moving on its own,” Pein said. Then he withdrew some of his mana back and immediately the rock lost a little bit of its light. It was now glowing white-blue and chiming loudly, but not as loud as it was before. “I have come to the conclusion that this rock has various glow levels and volume levels,” he finally took the rest of his mana back and the rock lost its glow, chime, and levitation, making it fall into his hand instead of on the ground. “Around three of them,” he added before storing the rock away in his cloak.

Jane did the same to hers and put the rock away back in her dimensional pocket.

“So what you’re saying is...” she paused and furrowed her brows in thought.

“Go on, Miss Foster,” Pein encouraged.

“The rock will glow blue and chime low as it stays still if you channel a small amount of energy into it. Then, the rock will glow white-blue and chime loud, which leads it to levitate in the air if you channel a great amount of energy into it. And finally, the rock will glow white and chime very loud as it stays levitating in the air if you channel a massive amount of energy into it,” the dark brown-blonde haired woman explained. Then she looked at him. “Am I right?” she asked with a concealed triumph smile.

Pein, who caught the smile, gave her a version of his own smile.

“You are,” he said, making the woman relax then puff up in pride afterwards.

Sasori rolled his eyes at the human and turned his attention back on his leader and asked, “That’s nice and all, but how is that going to help us with our search for the Kyuubi?”

Sakura harshly elbowed him in the gut, making the half-spirit man wince in pain.

“Ano...Pein...” she spoke up nervously, totally ignoring her cousin’s glare as the spiky ginger haired great spirit turned his head. “Can you please get to the point before this idiot here loses whatever little patience he has left?”

Pein resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“I was going to, Sakura,” he said slowly, narrowing his eyes at the pink haired half-spirit woman and making her look away from him. “Now...” he paused then let out another sigh when he saw her and Sasori glaring at each other. ‘ _These two I swear..._ ’ he shook his head at their immaturity and turned around, taking a step forward towards the edge of the cliff. “I want all of you to tell me what you see down here,” he instructed before jumping off.

Quickly, the group and the lesser spirit huddled together and looked over the edge to see Pein land on the field down below, right near a large pond that twinkled and had a light green sheen to it. He then walked over to the water and stopped in front of it before raising his eyes upward in their direction. 

“It’s a pond! What else is new?” came Sasori’s deadpanned voice.

“Yes, but I want you to look closer!” Pein instructed further, choosing to ignore the redhead’s attitude as well as his flinch from Sakura’s kick he just saw.

“It’s glowing!” there was a tone of disbelief in Jane’s voice.

Pein nodded.

“That it is!” he said. “There are more of those strange iridescent rocks in the water!”

“So that’s why the pond is glowing!” came Shadow’s response.

“Correct! Now follow me!” 

The Great Spirit of Weather and Storms turned and started walking over the water. He kept going until he reached the middle and stopped. Without warning, Pein cut the flow of mana from his feet and submerged himself underwater.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Everyone except for the lesser spirit shared looks.

“I guess we’re going for a swim now,” Sakura said.

“Seems like it,” Jane mumbled in agreement.

The group slowly moved away from each other and the lesser spirit.

“Thank you for leading us here, little guy,” Jane looked over her shoulder at the transparent fox with a smile while the other three took a running start and then jumped off the cliff. “Good-bye,” she said to the creature.

The lesser spirit nodded and waved good-bye at her.

**_BOREE!_ **

Jane stood there and quietly watched the small creature fly away. And once he was out of sight, she turned to look over the cliff.

‘ _Here goes nothing,_ ’ she steeled herself for whatever she was about to discover and jumped after the trio.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Yellow-orange eyes encased in red sclera narrowed in frustration at the task at hand here, shrugging off the looks her cellmates were giving her in favor of looking for a weak point in the seal. She’s been sitting in front of this door all afternoon long, poking and probing at the seal to get a reaction. And so far, she’s only received two reactions. 

It was very frustrating. 

Every time she channeled her demonic energy, which she completely recovered about three hours ago, into the seal, it would fight back against her. And thus, it would punish her with a shock. 

Other times, it would just straight up eat her energy. Or, it tried to when she overpowered the seal.

Lucky for her though, that only happened three times. 

And when she tried it again for the fourth time, the seal tried to take her energy away. But she was ready for it, and thankfully reacted in time to pull her demonic energy back before the seal could take even a drop of it away.

Then, she stopped after that.

‘ _Come on..._ ’

As for right now...

...Well, she was going over another part of the seal she hadn’t explored yet. It was uncharted territory for her, and it made her a little nervous despite the initial confidence she had just minutes ago.

‘ _I just gotta ignore the shocks and energy drains and keep on going. I can’t stop now. Not when I’m so close!_ ’ she chanted in her head, giving herself a pep talk as she continued to probe at the seal. ‘ _I can feel it!_ ’

“Lady Shadow-wing...” Jude spoke up, seeing the smile on her face. “What’s up?”

“I think she just discovered something!” came Tony’s answer.

“She certainly has so!” said Loki. 

“Quiet you three. Don’t break her concentration,” came Doppelganger Shadow’s scolding.

The smile on Doppelganger Jane’s face widened when she ran over a spot that felt void of anything and got no reaction back. It was a miracle.

‘ _There!_ ’ she dug deep and still got no reaction back. ‘ _Haha_ , _alright!_ ’

Extremely pleased with the new situation here, the demon lady dug deeper and deeper until she heard what sounded like a _**hissing**_ noise. Then right before her and her cellmates’ eyes, the seal glowed for a quick second before catching on fire. 

‘ _Eureka!_ ’

The doppelganger backed away as the small flame, purplish-blue in color, ate away at the paper until nothing but ashes were left behind.

And when they fell to the ground, the whole cell became silent.

However, that silence didn’t last very long once Vergil, who saw the whole thing from within his own cell, spoke up.

“Well done, Night Devil.”

The doppelganger caught the look and knowing smirk on the half-devil’s face as she sunk into the floor and disappeared, leaving her cellmates except for Doppelganger Shadow speechless. Then seconds later, the demonic lady slowly emerged from the ground right outside the door like a shadowed blob with eyes that flashed a glowing red color instead of yellow-orange and stood...

...Directly under the light by it.

Before anyone could speak, the doppelganger’s form slowly changed.

“Whoa!”

Right before their eyes, the demon shrunk and lost her non-human features.

“Yo what the—”

“Surprise!” she said with a cheer, using her inside voice.

In front of them, a tall golden brown eyed human woman with long dark brown hair and honey blonde side swept bangs that were red at the bottom, including the tips on her ends, stood there with her gloved hands on her hips.

‘ _Wait a minute..._ ’

The human woman actually looked very familiar to Tony, who has seen pictures of her before, and Loki, who already saw her back in Mystic Ruins a few days ago. 

“Ha! I knew it!” the former whispered-shouted in victory.

The latter on the other hand though...

“Jane Foster...You were the draconic demon all along? Just...how? Impossible!”

In all of her human glory, Doppelganger Jane grinned and held back a laugh at the priceless look on Loki’s face.

“Ta-da!”

Then she got right to work by pulling out a switchblade from out of nowhere and sticking it in the key hole of the door.

“I’ll get you guys out of there,” she fiddled with the lock for a few seconds until…

**_CLICK!_ **

“Bingo!” Doppelganger Jane smirked as she unlocked the door, “Now you’re free to go!” and opened it. 

“That’s great and all, but what about us?” came Lady’s voice from behind her.

“Hey! I’m coming okay. Just hold your damn horses. Jeez!” the doppelganger rolled her eyes as she turned around and walked over to Vergil and his cellmates’ cell. “Since the seal is double-sided, I will destroy it from out here and then pick the lock,” she explained to them once she stopped in front of their door and got to work. “But it is up to you guys to open the door after I leave from this spot to move on and help everyone else with their locked up-sealed doors.”

“Got it,” Rouge and Tails nodded their heads in understanding, hoping in their minds that the door wouldn’t be too hard for them to open.

“Fine,” Lady said with a frown on her face.

“Very well then,” Vergil closed his eyes with a sigh.

They quiet down and let the young woman continue to do her job in peace.


	8. Chapter 8

The rush of cold water washed over her face and left her ears ringing as she found her body making a slow descent towards the bottom of the pond. And along the way, she brushed up against something solid and hard, which caused her to blink her eyes open. Feeling more than a little bit confused, the young woman looked on either side of her and saw nothing in sight. Then she looked up and spotted a dark colored blob floating high above her head with fuzzy eyes. 

‘ _Hmm—_ ’ before she could even properly make out what that thing she’d bumped into earlier was, a flash of blue light from below caught her attention. 

Jane looked down as soon as her vision cleared up and saw Sakura’s gloved hand laying on a chiming and glowing blue iridescent rock that was sitting on top of a lily pad next to her. She and the other four were hovering near a coral reef at the pond floor, looking up at her.

The astrophysicist realized that they were waiting on her, and so without wasting any more of their time, she swam down with the quickness towards them.

As soon as she reached their side, the pinkette withdrew her mana from the rock and released her hold on it while Pein, on the other hand, looked down and stared at them blankly. Seconds passed before he finally turned around and motioned the four to follow him. 

**_SWOOSH!_ **

He took off in an orange blur. 

‘ _He’s fast...!_ ’ Jane gasped in her mind, shocked by the man spirit’s blinding speed. 

Shadow, Sakura, and Sasori shared a quick glance with each other before turning their sights onto her. She returned their looks and shared a message with them through her eyes alone. They nodded their heads in unison, easily picking up on the human woman’s intent as she swam past them and took off in a dark brown-blonde blur through the water, leaving a trail of bubbles in her wake. 

‘ _Better catch up to him before he leaves us all behind!_ ’ Jane frowned in concentration as she swam faster and faster after Pein’s speedy form, weaving in and out of the aquatic life’s way every so often in a graceful manner, as if she’d been born in the water and not on land. She did not stop or slow down for her companions, she just could not; otherwise, she’d lose Pein’s trail.

So through sheer will and determination, Jane pushed herself even further, shooting and cutting through the water in dire hopes of catching up to Pein, who was still a good distance up ahead and swimming so much faster than she could ever possibly imagine. 

_**MAAAWWHHOOOOOO!** _

Despite being underwater, the young hybrid woman performed a graceful backflip to the right, successfully avoiding a whale-like monster that swam through, and made her way through a growing patch of lily pads. 

As she came out through the other side, Jane spotted Pein swimming up to five giant iridescent rocks that were lined up in a prism shape in front of a cave. 

They all started glowing white right after he touched them and right as she approached the guy. She stopped right next to the man spirit and gave him a curious look.

Without even turning to her, he shook his head, preferring not to say anything as they waited for the other three to catch up.

Thankfully, the two didn’t have to stand there for very long because Shadow, Sasori, and Sakura broke through the lily pad patch and reached their side in no time at all.

_**ZZZZZZZZPPT!** _

The group flinched when the white light brightened up a bit. ‘ _What is happening right now?_ ’ all of them except for Pein asked, shielding their eyes behind the safety of their arms as the surprisingly warm light washed over them and engulfed their bodies whole.

Once the light from the rocks finally died down a minute later, the group of five warriors were no longer there. 

They had disappeared.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Somewhere in another area near the cave, and deep within the woods this time, a loud scream was heard.

“Aaaaarrrggh! This is so boring!” a high masculine and scratchy voice growled out in frustration, which sent all of the land-based and flying-based creatures in the vicinity away. “We’ve been sitting out here for hours now! It’s like a ghost town out here!”

“What did you expect, nimrod?” a deep masculine and grainy voice sighed heavily in slight exasperation. “There’s not a single soul around for miles except for us and the—” he paused then shook his head. “Actually, I’m pretty sure you just scared off the last of the local wildlife in this area with your annoying loud voice.”

“Why you—”

“Shut up!” a third masculine voice, who was apparently the general, spoke up harshly. 

“Sorry!” the two voices apologized to him, cowering under his death glare.

Taking a break under the safety of a massive tree from the rain, a large group of mercenaries covered in strange armor sat around on a thick and sturdy looking branch, discussing their plans for the evening. 

Earlier this morning, they received a mission from their client, a large creature with red eyes, who hired them to guard the barrier he placed in these woods. It was a powerful barrier that shielded something important, making it invisible to the outside world even, and that important something was a mansion.

So far, no one has come out of the cave to greet them. No one other than the occasional monster or two, which they took care of immediately. After that, no one else approached them. No one wanted to after witnessing the slaughter they committed on their fellow kind. 

Then the rain came in and ruined all of that. It put a damper on their moods. Made them a bit angry, or irritated in Leader’s case, too. They couldn’t exactly do their duty properly if they had to relocate elsewhere, and they’d been prepared to do that until one of them found a tree they could take up shelter in. So they went ahead and did just that. 

And now, they’ve been sitting here for the past three hours or so, waiting for the rain to dissipate; however, they felt like that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. 

It was too bad that neither one of them had any weather related abilities, otherwise they would have stopped this rain the second it appeared and made it sunny instead. 

“We will continue to wait here until our client...” the general suddenly went still when he saw an explosion of white light up ahead.

“What was that?” seven voices, four of them female and three of them male, asked in unison and jumped to their feet, while making sure not to fall out of the tree, at the presence of five powerful energy signatures nearby. 

“I don’t know, but it’s coming from inside of the cave,” a low female voice, who was the lieutenant of the group, said.

“In that case...” another female voice, this one being soft in tone yet mature in age, decided to speak up. “Lieutenant, I want you to take the team with you and check the cave out while General and I stay here and guard the barrier.”

“Understood, Milady!” the lieutenant nodded at her leader. Then she turned to the grunts of their group, “Okay team! Let’s move out!” and commanded them in a strong voice.

“Yeah!”

The group of ten jumped down and took off towards the cave with a great burst of speed. 

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Four pairs of eyes blinked open when the light died down. Jane and the other three lowered their arms and looked around the water warily. The rocks were still there and reverting back to their glow-less, iridescent selves. The area still looked about the same. Well maybe except for one thing—and they almost missed it too if it hadn’t been for Sasori pointing the little detail out. 

There were no monsters and no animals swimming about. The place was completely deserted and void of sea life, which was strange. 

Before they could ponder on this unsettling news, a small gargle-like noise drew their attention and they looked up to see their spiky orange haired companion quickly swimming up to the surface, his face turning a startling shade of blue.

A similar shade of the same color washed over their faces when they realized with wide eyes how they were about to run out of air. And quickly at that!

‘ _Shit._ ’

Yet despite this and their instinctual need to panic, which they squashed down immediately, Jane and the other three weren’t too worried. The four kept cool heads as they calmly yet swiftly swam after Pein, and in mere seconds, they reached his side just as he was inches away from the surface.

_**SPLAAAAAASH!** _

All five of them broke through it at the same time with a collective gasp that soon turned into a cough.

For five straight minutes, the group did nothing but float there in the water, greedily taking in the air through small deep breaths once their coughing subsided. Then the group of five took a look around them to see what was in the area.

“What is this place?” Jane flipped her wet bangs out of her face and stared around in awe at the sight of glowing stalagmites and sparkling stones of various sizes and colors embedded in the ground, ceiling, and walls. “Oh my god! This place...it looks sooooo amazing!” her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree the longer she stared at the stones and when they landed on a peculiar picture of some three-headed chimera creature drawn in ink, Jane all but shouted in surprise.

Pein, Sasori, Sakura, and Shadow triple blinked when a dark brown-blonde blur waddled past them and out of the water, appearing before the drawing in a flash.

“Umm...What just happened?” Sakura asked, staring incredulously at Jane who couldn’t help but take out her cellphone and run back and forth, taking pictures of the thing at every angle.

“She’s like a little kid in a candy store, acting as if she won the lottery or something,” Sasori commented with a lazy narrow of his grayish-brown and yellow eyes, titling his head a bit to the side as he observed the woman who was now recording her findings. “Ridiculous,” he shook his head with a sigh.

Shadow scoffed at him. 

“Not for a scientist it isn’t,” he said and waddled past the half-spirit man. 

Sasori and the other two followed seconds later.

“A scientist you say?” Pein inquired.

“Yes,” the black and red hedgehog said over his shoulder. 

Sakura smiled.

“Well that explains her sudden enthusiasm,” she said in laughter. “And I can definitely sympathize with her. If it was something new and medical, potion, or item related I found, I’d be over the moon!” a fond look appeared on face when she said this. “But that drawing...it sure does look nice.”

Pein nodded his head in agreement, his ringed eyes glued onto the chimera drawing on the wall, looking at the whole thing in slight interest.

Sasori didn’t say anything as they all walked out of the water and made their way over to Jane, who tapped on her phone a few times and put it away when she heard their incoming footsteps.

“Oh!” a sheepish smile crawled over her face as she turned to face the group. “Sorry I ran off back there you guys. I just got a little excited about this drawing here,” she pointed at the picture above them. “You’re not mad are you?” she scratched the back of her head nervously, feeling more than a little bit embarrassed that she let her excitement get the better of her and side track her from their mission. 

Shadow shook his head.

“No. It’s fine,” he crossed his arms over his fluffy white chest. “Did you get what you needed from this drawing here?”

A grin followed by a nod is what he received for an answer.

“Good,” the Ultimate Lifeform uncrossed his arms. “Now we can go.”

The group of warriors started walking down the rocky path with Shadow taking the lead and Pein bringing up the rear, leaving Jane and the half-spirit cousins in the middle.

* * *

_**|**SKIT 001: JANE FOSTER THE AMBITIOUS ASTROPHYSICIST**|** _

* * *

_Sakura placed a hand under her chin and tapped it in thought with her index finger._

_“Hey Jane...” — Sakura_

_Jane looked at her curiously._

_“What kind of scientist are you?” — Sakura  
_

_“Oh! I’m an Astrophysicist!” *a smile appeared on her face* “That’s what I got my PhD in when I graduated from my university in London on Earth.” — Jane_

_The pinkette appeared to be interested in this while Pein and Sasori had thoughtful looks on their faces._

_“Astrophysics huh...That’s the study of stars and other celestial bodies, right?” *then he looks at her with intense eyes* “Which deals with a lot of theories and applications in the laws of astronomical physics I believe.” — Sasori  
_

_“Yes, and yes. I know it’s a hard field to get into and mostly dominated by males, but I was able to get through it. And successfully at that too. I’ve been interested in the stars and outer space in general ever since my late father got me my first telescope at age six and took me to the mountains to see my first meteor shower at age seven. It was right then and there that I wanted to study the stars when I grow up, and possibly find a way to travel to the other worlds and universes without relying on those who have abilities, weapons, or special items that can take them there. I want to do this in hopes of studying and learning what’s beyond Planet Earth. I want to take that knowledge and teach it to a few selective groups of others, so that we can all build a bridge of some sorts to help mankind move forward in this vast and wide universe. We can’t be stuck in the past forever or concentrate on what’s only happening in the present timeline when there’s a future just lying and waiting ahead of us out there. And the first step to doing that is breaking out of our shell, our little bubble that we call our comfort zone, and taking that next step into the unknown. I, myself, have already done so.” — Jane  
_

_Sakura stared at her with wide eyes while her cousin and Pein narrowed theirs._

_“Such an ambitious woman you are, Jane. With an ambitious goal no less. Do you believe you can achieve it? Your dream?” — Pein  
_

_Jane gave the spiky orange haired spirit a fierce look that screamed determination._

_“What kind of question is that? Hell yeah I can achieve it! Make no mistake about it though, I will not fail. I won’t allow myself to!” — Jane  
_

_This made Pein smirk._

_“Good. That’s the right attitude to have. But keep in mind that there could be a lot of obstacles thrown in your way at any time, so watch out for that.” *he closed his ringed eyes* “And make sure to lower your expectations and not let them get too high because I’ve seen far too many people give up on their dreams after they came so far in life and that is only because they fell apart at the sight of a roadblock. Or became disappointed in the results they received at the end of their goals.” *then he opened them and gave her a tiny smile.* “Still, I have a feeling that...that is not going to be too much of a problem for you.” — Pein  
_

_Sasori chuckled while Sakura gave Jane a bright smile and a peace sign, making the young woman blush a little._

_“Do not disappoint me, girl. I would hate for you to lose that spark of yours that I can see in your eyes now. Keep going and do not look back. Or let anyone try to stop you from getting what you want.” — Sasori  
_

_“Good luck, Jane. I look forward to the day your dream becomes a reality. I hope this bridge of yours that you plan on building will be a sight to see.” — Sakura  
_

_Jane was nearly floored by their responses, and she looked at them with teary eyes._

_“I...Thank you, Sakura. And thank you, Sasori. You too, Pein.” — Jane_

* * *

The group of five walked deeper into the cave until they reached a split in the pathway that led to three rooms.

“What now?” Shadow asked when they paused and observed each one.

Pein left his position from the back and stopped right next to the immortal hedgehog. He ignored his and everyone else’s looks and merely pointed at the middle hole, which left the only human in the group and Shadow in a state of confusion. Then without saying a single word to them, he swiftly made his way over to the chosen pathway.

“How can he...”

“I think he’s picking up something in that direction, Jane,” Sakura interrupted the young woman and turned to the spiky haired man spirit. “Do you sense anything, Pein?” she asked him, following shortly behind his tall form along with the others.

“Ten energy signatures. All of them are hidden in the next room over.”

Sakura tensed at his answer, but nodded her head nonetheless.

It was understandable considering that, out of everyone here, Pein was a sensor. He could sense enemies even if they were _miles_ away, and he could sense them even if they lowered their energy until it was almost nonexistent. Even something as simple as cloaking their presence wouldn’t help either since he could still sense them. So it was useless to try any of these options.

Simply put, the guy was just too good at sensing anything and everything.

“Be on your guard everyone,” Pein warned them as he went inside.

With a firm nod of their heads, they went in after him, mentally preparing themselves for battle.

The group trekked through the dark narrow cave hall, a few of them complaining about how cramped and muggy it was the further they went in. Still, the group kept on walking until they reached some stairs.

Figuring that this leads to the bottom level of the cave, the five warriors decided to climb down the stairs, and by the time they reached the final step, their eyes caught sight of a light up ahead. The warriors braced themselves as they carefully yet slowly moved at a snail’s pace towards the entrance of the next room.

Before going inside though, Pein lifted a hand, signaling them to stop. He looked over his shoulder at the four and stared at them. There was an expectant look in lavender-purple ringed eyes, and it was a look that he knew they definitely felt. 

Taking the hint, Jane summoned her staff while Sasori pulled out a small scroll and Sakura along with Shadow tightened the gloves on their hands.

Feeling pleased by this, Pein gave them a small nod of his head. He turned around and faced the entrance. Then with a simple flick of his wrist, a black and white metal rod shot out of his sleeve in less than a millisecond. 

Clenching tightly onto the weapon in his fingerless gloved hand with a small metal plate on it, he led his team through the hole and entered a new room...

...Only to be attacked from all sides.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Meanwhile outside of the cave...

“Hey Milady, shouldn’t we call our client and tell him about this?”

The leader of the mercenary group looked over to her general out of the corner of her eye for a sec before turning her attention to the leaves in front of her.

“Hmm...” she lounged back even further into the hard bark of the tree trunk with a sigh. “You’re right,” she pulled a phone out from her pocket and dialed a number. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do so.”

**xXXXXXXXXx**

A familiar creature with red eyes was pacing back and forth in a dark room that was lit up by twelve ceiling monitors that surrounded him from all sides in pairs of three. He also had a smaller one sitting on a large desk behind him, a large rectangular desk that was sitting in-between two file cabinets to be exact, that was cluttered with the following items:books, papers, a small fourteen-inch screen laptop, a cordless telephone, a cell phone, a desk lamp, a variety of writing utensils neatly placed in a white ceramic cup, and some trinkets sitting off to the side. 

The reason why he was pacing in this room had something to do with what he saw take place on one of the twelve monitors, specifically the one that gave him feedback on the dungeon room.

The tall creature had just got back from conducting business with one of the most dangerous and feared men on Planet Earth and was about to sit down and go through some of his papers until he checked the fifth monitor on his right. When he saw “Jane Foster” and Lady picking the locks on two of the cells sitting across from each other with a group of people, including their cellmates, standing behind them, he jumped out of his chair.

Then he almost picked up said chair and threw it against the wall when he saw the women break his prisoners out of their cells. It was unbelievable how those two and the others managed to escape from their cells, let alone get past the seals he placed on their doors. 

He didn’t know how they did it, but he wasn’t going to stand for this. He wasn’t going to let them get away from him so easily, so he called on some of his guards to go down there and take care of the situation.

The only thing that worried him though was that Foster woman. And maybe her friend too, the elder son of Sparda. He knew how powerful those two were and how much damage they could cause if they had full access to their weapons, powers, magic, and demonic energy.

As for that Norse god though...

Well, he didn’t have to worry about that guy too much since, in his mind, Loki wasn’t that much of a threat to him in his current form and current state of appearance.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check up on his men to see if they have done their job yet or not. 

‘ ** _It’s been thirty minutes since I’ve sent those buffoons down there. What’s taking them so long?_** ’ the red-eyed creature growled in frustration.

Right as he walked over to his desk, he heard a noise.

**_BZZZ...BZZZ..._ **

The creature furrowed his brows in confusion, trying to figure where the sound was coming from. 

**_BZZZ...BZZZ..._ **

He searched his desk, moving his clutter of stuff aside until his eyes landed on the cell phone sitting in front of his laptop, flashing and buzzing up a storm. 

A relieved sigh escaped from his lips when he reached down to pick up the device.

“ **Oh great...What does that mercenary leader and her group want now?** ” he groaned when he spotted whose number it was on the screen, and before the phone could hang up, he carefully swiped a clawed finger across the screen and held it up to his ear. “ **Woman, you better have a good reason for calling me this instant!** ” he bit out into the phone.

“ **Oh don’t worry big guy, I do! There’s a couple of intruders in the cave near our location, so I sent the majority of my team and my lieutenant in there to check it out. My general and I are still here in front of the barrier, waiting for them to come back,** ” the mercenary leader told him from the other end. 

The creature raised a brow. 

“ **That’s it?** ” he couldn’t help but ask, his red eyes straying over to the giant monitors.

“ **What do you mean by ‘that’s it’?** ” she asked, miffed by his question and nonchalance. “ **You don’t care about the intruders at all, sir?** ” confusion mixed with mild irritation lingered heavily in her voice.

He closed his eyes, willing back a sigh, and said, “ **I do...but not really. You didn’t have to call me and tell me that piece of information! Now, if it was about the barrier, I can understand—** _”_

“ **Yeah, umm, about that...** ” she started before quietly trailing off.

“ **Oh...?** ” he opened his eyes back up then narrowed them into slits at the woman’s tone of voice and her pause. That sounded a little too suspicious to him. “ **What are you hiding _—_** ” his brows shot up in surprise at the sound of a distant _**boom**_ going on in the background through his phone. “ **Alright, what the hell was that?!** ” he demanded.

“ **I...have no idea. It sounded like it came from near the cave and—Oh shit!** ” a curse suddenly erupted from the mercenary’s lips.

He heard another _**boom**_ through the phone, only this one sounded much louder and closer to the leader and her general’s location.

“ **Damn it woman! Tell me what’s going on over there _—_** ” his brows climbed even higher, disappearing behind the mass of fur on his head at the sound of a...

**_BLOOP!_ **

He slowly lowered the cell phone away from his ear and stared at it incredulously. 

‘ ** _Did that really happen just now?_** ’

There were only two options he could think of: the woman either hung up on him on purpose or she dropped her phone and it hung up by itself. 

He seriously hoped that it was the latter. 

Because if it was the former, that bitch was going to get it.

The creature growled as he put his phone away.

‘ _ **Goddamn incompetent foo—** ’ _he cut himself off at the sight of smoke he caught out of the corner of his eye. ‘ ** _Now what?_** ’ he turned to the monitor next to number five and stared at it. “ **You have got to be kidding me...** ” he trailed off in disbelief with wide eyes.

On the screen, it showed Lady and Vergil working together on clearing out their enemies in the dimly lit corridor, mowing down every single one of them without breaking a sweat. It was as if his guards were nothing to them. And to add insult to injury, “Jane Foster” and “Shadow the Hedgehog” leaped over the two and took out the four guards who were about to jump down from the floor above them and ambush the two devil hunters. Then the young woman fired a blast of holy energy from her staff at the female guard who appeared from around the corner and took her out while "Shadow" flung his Chaos Spear at the girl’s partner who came out right after her, taking him out as well. 

And right as they finished their job, another male guard dropped down from the upper floor to the ground. He turned and launched himself at the dark brown-blonde haired woman, getting ready to strike her down until he fell over in a pool of blood with a pair of knives embedded in his body. The first one was buried deep in man’s heart while the other one was stuck in his neck.

The creature’s red eyes widened even further when the God of Mischief, who was no longer a giant bird, walked past “Jane Foster” and kneeled before the dead corpse to retrieve his knives. Once Loki was finished with that, he went over to the woman and her friend’s side, winked at the former, and joined in on the fight as more guards poured into the surprisingly spacious hallway, switching in-between stabbing his opponents to death and blasting them away with his seidr every few seconds or so. 

The god was weak no more from what it seems. He was in peak condition and faring pretty well for someone who’d just got out of jail. 

And judging by the light green energy coming from his hands too, he seemed to have regained all of his magic back. This meant that he was back to normal now.

Loki, the God of Mischief, Lies, and Chaos, was back to his old-and-powerful-magic wielding self.

How was this possible? The creature didn’t fucking know. 

He truly didn’t, but he was mad as hell right now.

‘ ** _Fucking bloody hell! This is ridiculous!_** ’ the huge creature all but raged in his head. ‘ ** _Preposterous!_** ’ he moved closer to the screen, watching a few other people such as Jude, Wingul, and Leon protecting the ones who were still too weak and drained to defend themselves and protecting the ones who couldn’t fight at all from the back of the group.

“ **That is it!** ” he finally snapped when all eight of them defeated the remaining guards in the hallway and made their way up the stairs with the rest of the group following behind them. 

“ **I have had it with those pathetic guards and those brats I’ve worked so hard to capture and collect data on!** ” he turned away from the screen.

Steam was pouring out of his ears and off his now-red face by the time he walked over to his desk. 

_‘ **I’ll just have to deal with them myself!**_ ’ 

He carefully picked up a few books and a stack of papers before shoving them all into a leather briefcase that he had picked up off from the floor underneath his desk, and once he got done with that, he shut it closed. After deeming the rest of his stuff, except for his laptop _—_ which he picked up as well, a lost cause, he walked away from his desk and headed towards the door.

‘ ** _Oh wait..._** ’

Before he opened it, the creature stored his briefcase and laptop away in Hammer Space, a.k.a. his pocket dimension.

‘ ** _Can’t be too clumsy or reckless now. That stuff’s irreplaceable,_** ’ he chuckled to himself then reached down seconds later to open the door. And once he did, he walked out of his office. 

Unfortunately for him though, the second he turned around and closed the door and locked it, the power went out.

_**KABOOM!** _

At that sound, hequickly whirled around and looked about the place. But after seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he decided to look up.

A row of lights hanging from the ceiling hallway greeted him, flickering on and off for a few short seconds before completely shutting off for good.

_**BOOM!** _

The huge creature swore under his breath as he tuned his gaze back down and switched it over to the wall. He reached out and pawed at it, feeling around for the light switch he knew was there.

And it didn’t help that the ground underneath him was shaking a bit, making his job that much harder to complete. 

‘ ** _Ah, yes! There it is!_** ’ his eyes sparkled a bit when he found the light switch a minute later.

**_CLICK!_ **

Nothing happened...

“ **What the hell?** ”

_**CLICK! CLICK!** _

Still nothing...

“ **What the fuck?!** ”

**_CLICK! CLICK!_ **

And the room was still covered in darkness.

However...

He dropped his clawed hand and let out a big sigh of relief when the ground finally stopped moving. But he had bigger things to worry about now _—_ aside from the power outage and a generator that he was probably going to need to get replaced.

There was something he was secretly keeping down in the basement, which was located below another floor and the dungeon room above that. 

On that particular floor, he had some things stored in a room there. It was the one and only room as well as the only floor in the whole entire building where he kept all of his important lab work files, liquids, chemicals, and imported viral injections at.

‘ ** _Oh no..._** ’

“ _ **WARNING! WARNING! CHEMICAL SPILL IN SECURITY LEVEL SEVEN! I REPEAT, CHEMICAL SPILL IN SECURITY LEVEL SEVEN!**_ ”the alarm went off.“ ** _WARNING! WARNING! SECURITY LEVEL EIGHT HAS BEEN BREACHED! I REPEAT, SECURITY LEVEL EIGHT HAS BEEN BREACHED! ALL PERSONNELS ARE REQUIRED TO EVACUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALL PERSONALS ARE TO EVACUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!_** ”

‘ ** _Oh for the love of—_** ’

_**CRACK!** _

_**HISSSSS!** _

Confused, he looked up; however, that feeling was soon replaced with horror when he saw tiny cracks forming and spreading all over the walls, flashing an angry red color that was starting to form into golden orange bubbles. 

**_POP!_ **

The creature jumped back, avoiding the splash of sizzling liquid that fell on the floor with a _**hiss**_.

**_POP!_ **

‘ ** _Shit! I better leave here now before this whole place starts to collapse and burn down!_** ’ the creature swore again as he jumped over the now-smoking hole in the ground and dashed through the hall, heading towards the door he could see down the hallway, and in no time at all, he reached the end.

Then he opened the door and slammed it shut behind him without looking back.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

“ _ **WARNING! WARNING! SECURITY LEVEL EIGHT HAS BEEN BREACHED! I REPEAT, SECURITY LEVEL EIGHT HAS BEEN BREACHED! ALL PERSONALS ARE REQUIRED TO EVACUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY!**_ ” the alarm continued blaring its ear-piercing message as the walls and ceiling in the pitch black hallway, cracked and bubbling as they were, started to break apart and fall to the floor in a sizzling mess.

_**RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!** _

Deep within the bowels of the mansion, shrill cries of inhuman fury could be heard from behind a tightly sealed door made out of steel. It was a door that led to the basement. A basement that contained something inside, a few _somethings_ that wanted to be let out. 

And desperately too.

_**BOOM!** _

The cries from inside grew louder and louder, and sounded downright terrifying, as both the knob on the door and the door itself began to rattle, shaking from side-to-side so violently that cracks started to appear and form along the casing of the door.

_**KABOOM!** _

A nice fist-sized hole suddenly appeared on the outside wall, directly next to the ratting door, before a giant reptilian-like clawed hand replaced it.

_**RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!** _

Then without warning, the hand started dragging its deadly sharp claws, slowly and carefully, across the wall...

_**SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!** _

...And over the steel door, creating white-orange sparks in the process, before reaching the other side...

_**RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!** _

...And making a sudden stop.

Then it quickly disappeared back inside, leaving a giant hole in its place.

_**KABOOM!** _

The sudden explosion blew the door off its hinges and sent it flying across the hallway until it crashed up against the wall next to the stairway, whipping up a cloud of smoke that shrouded the hallway in a haze of grey within seconds.

_**RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!** _

Several pairs of eerie yellow eyes belonging to a group of hulking silhouettes blinked into existence. They gathered around near the threshold and took in the area while sniffing at the cloudy air for any living and breathing organisms nearby.

_**BOOM!** _

Due to the sounds of fighting and shouting happening on the upper floors of the mansion, it didn’t take them very long to locate their prey. And with a short growl that quickly turned into a shrill battle cry, the bulky reptilian creatures took a big leap out of the room and ran down the hall on all fours, making their way over to the stairs.

But out of the corner of their eye, they spotted a brand new giant hole in the wall. One that clearly had not been there a second ago.

Seeing as this shortcut might lead them to their prey much faster, the reptilian creatures dropped their original plan to take the stairs located at the end of the hallway as they ran over to the hole instead and jumped straight through it.


	9. Chapter 9

If there was ever a time Jane would be lucky to have new friends and allies on par with the likes of Dante and Vergil fighting by her side, today would be the day.

It was insane how strong these warriors were. They were ridiculously strong, and just watching them take out a group of flying monsters that had tried to ambush from above a minute ago in less than thirty seconds made her feel quite useless. She didn’t even get the chance to do anything really—and neither did Shadow for that matter!

By the time they dodged the attacks and landed on the ground, a group of ten mercenaries dressed in some kind of strange armor stepped forward and fired some kind of energy beam based attacks at them. 

They avoided all of those beams too and looked in the direction of where the second wave of attacks came from. 

After spotting the ten mercenaries, who just got done splitting up, Sasori, Pein, and Sakura zipped past Jane and Shadow and went in for the kill.

Literally.

“Come out from behind that wooden monster you red-headed coward—” 

Sasori sent his puppet, a large female dragon with golden yellow-blue eyes and crimson-black colored scales, flying towards the six mercenaries standing in front of him, and with a flick of his pinky, the dragon opened her mouth and incinerated the group on the spot. 

“You were saying?” he asked over the sounds of their dying screams, his voice dripping in complete boredom. “Hmm. What’s that? You got nothing? Alright then,” the half-spirit man quipped and sent his puppet away in a puff of white smoke. “Thank you for your silence,” he added sarcastically and walked away from their charred corpses without so much of a backward glance.

Jane couldn’t help but stand back and stare at the redhead. 

‘ _Yeesh!_ _I never imagined how ruthless this guy could be in real life. Thank god he’s on our side; otherwise I wouldn’t know what to do if he was our enemy,_ ’ she shook her head and turned her attention to—

**_BOOM!_ **

‘ _Ouch..._ ’ she winced when Pein blew three mercenaries back into a wall with Shinra Tensei, and the trio slid to the ground only to get crushed by the fallen debris that broke apart from their earlier impact. ‘ _Oh yeah, those guys are definitely dead for sure!_ ’ she stated in her mind.

Although Jane was a bit bummed out that she didn’t contribute anything to the battle ( _can she even call it that really_ ), a small part of her was a little glad that she didn’t. These guys were pretty weak. Much too weak for her to even bother with. 

And from the look on Shadow’s face, he was probably thinking along the same lines as her.

“Such a weak bunch these guys are here,” he commented, appearing next to her side in a black flash.

Jane nodded in agreement and watched Sakura charge at the “supposed leader” of the group who was the only one left in battle, gasping in awe when the pinkette punched the woman in the gut and sent her flying clear across the cave.

**_THUD!_ **

As small as it was, the sound reached their ears as soon as the lieutenant crashed and landed somewhere outside of the cave. 

“Do not let that woman escape!” Pein commanded.

“Hai! / Okay!” Sakura, Sasori, Jane, and Shadow all responded in unison.

The five of them regrouped then ran towards the exit they could see up ahead.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

The rain was about as relentless as ever, soaking everything from the top of the mountain ledge that was situated high above the roof of the cave to the bottom of it where the grass met the trees, which surrounded the pathway leading into the woods from all sides. And despite it pouring like cats and dogs out here, it had not begun to storm just yet. Sure, the clouds were there, gathering and looming above high in the sky with its ominous grey presence, but there were no streaks of lightning coursing through them.

However, it would only be a matter of time before they do start to appear.

And they will.

Soon.

This was something that the two mercenaries knew for a fact...

...Along with someone else. 

And unknown to the leader and her general, that someone else stood atop the mountain ledge, hiding in the shadows between two large boulders that were covered in moss and leaves. It shielded their tall masculine stature from view and provided a tiny little bit of protection from the rain.

“It seems like the fighting in the cave has stopped,” the silhouetted figure said, his voice naturally low and silky. He had short curly violet hair with dark purple tips and wore a dark cloak that had a bit of purple sheen to it —down the shoulders and sides of the sleeves and on the inside of the cloak that could be seen from the lowered hood— over his body. 

Currently, he was leaning back against the side of the right boulder with his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest.

“ **Over there!** ” came a female voice down below.

Then he felt five powerful energy signatures emerge from the cave, and in the next second, he felt the release of mana and some other other energy that felt chaotic in nature.

“ **A finely-sharpened blade of wind that pierces through. Wind Lance!** ”

“ **Chaos Spear!** ”

The mysterious man’s eyes snapped open, revealing hazel-red orbs that looked down and narrowed at the green light shaped like an arc blade and shards of yellow light speeding towards the lieutenant lying on the ground.

**_BOOM!_ **

“ **Aaaaahhhhh!** ” a scream erupted from her lips as her body got tossed into the air and flung right into a tree, the same tree that the two mercenaries were sitting high up in, with a sickening **_crunch_**.

From his spot, the curly haired man easily caught the two looking down from their tree branch in surprise when they heard something hit the ground pretty hard. 

“ **I...have no idea. It sounded like it came from near the cave and—Oh shit!** ” he saw her look up with a curse, eyes going wide at the sight of a Chaos Spear and Wind Lance flying towards her and her general, to which they both jumped down from their tree a second later.

**_BOOM!_ **

Smoke poofed into the area as the tree exploded into pieces and began to fall. The two mercenaries scrambled out of the way to avoid the shards of wet bark raining down on them as well as the trunk of the tree that crashed to the ground a second later...

...Right on top of the unmoving and bleeding body of the lieutenant. 

Unfortunately for the leader, in her haste to escape, she accidentally dropped her cellphone. And she didn’t even realize it until she and her general ran out of the dissipating smoke and stood a safe distance away from the destruction.

“ **Oh no! Where’s my phone at—** ” he saw the leader get cut off by the appearance of a dark brown-blonde haired human woman and a black and red mobian hedgehog who flashed above and behind her frozen form with their arms stretched out in front of them, a dark ball of energy ( _though the human’s was a dark shade of blue that was borderline purple and had a crackle of electricity surrounding hers while the hedgehog had a reddish-white light surrounding his_ ) forming in the middle of their palms.

“ **Devil Bombsphere!** ”

“ **Chaos Ball!** ”

He raised a brow. 

‘ _Jane Foster and Shadow the Hedgehog? What are these two doing here? I thought Sergeant Duke captured them and threw them into the dungeon?_ ’ the curly haired man frowned when the duo missed their attack, hitting the ground instead of the mercenary leader who managed to turn around and dodge in time.

**_BOOM!_ **

His frown deepened when the other three he sensed earlier finally appeared in the clearing and attacked the general. 

‘ _These must be their friends..._ ’ the man mused to himself, spying the tall male one with spiky orange hair, lavender-purple ringed eyes, and piercings all over his face teaming up with the female one who had long pink hair and jade green-yellow eyes to deliver a synchronized punch at their foe. ‘ _But I wonder...Who are they?_ ’ he watched the general move to the right to dodge their attack and jumped in the air to avoid the second male, who had messy short red hair and grayish-brown and yellow eyes, that flung a few needles dipped in poison at him.

‘ _Actually, now that I look at them more closely..._ ’ he stared at the trio intently as they immediately dodged the general’s scatter shots of lightning that beamed down from the dark rainy sky. ‘ _They do look familiar to me. But where in the world have I seen them before?_ ’ he drummed his left fingers on his upper right arm in thought, watching the trio retaliate with their own attacks only to miss when the general intercepted them with a shock wave of mana that he directed into the ground with his glowing hand. 

Without wasting any time, the pinkette swiftly casted a large water bubble to form above the enemy’s head while the ginger head quickly formed a glowing light bluish-white portal with multiple shards of ice surrounding it in front of him and the redhead immediately casted a red ornamental circular glyph beneath the enemy’s feet. 

Before the general could defend himself, the trio released their attacks at the same time.

“ **Blue Sphere!** ”

“ **Icicles project forth to attack any hostiles. Freezer Lancer!** ”

“ **Let the flames engulf you! Flame Ring!** ”

A short cry of pain escaped from the general as he found himself knocked to his knees, overwhelmed by the chill and heat of their attacks.

**_BOOM!_ **

The curly haired man raised a brow when the mercenary general struggled to get up. And despite his severe injuries, despite panting in exhaustion, and despite coughing up some blood, he finally did. 

‘ _Well, well, well, I guess the mercenary does have a little bit of fight left in him. Interesting,_ ’ he uncrossed his arms and looked at the guy with impressed eyes.

“ **Prism Wave of Lightning!** ” 

The pinkette flashed in front of her partners and punched the ground, inserting a bit of her mana into the giant rock structure that shot up afterwards, making it glow bright blue, and blocked the enemy’s attack just in time.

**_BOOM!_ **

By the time the smoke cleared, the rock wall was still standing. It did not have not a single scratch on its surface, which meant the lightning attack had failed.

The violet-purple haired man placed his hands on his hips, ‘ _This is going to take a while..._ ’ and sighed out loud. 

And it did. 

For the next seven minutes, the battle went on. Neither side was giving in. And in terms of power, they were nearly equal.

They traded blows back and forth, whipping up dust clouds and explosions in the process. It unfortunately left a lot of destruction in their wake, which made the curly haired man grimace as he continued to watch them down below from his spot.

And while he was far away from the battle to not feel the backlash of their collision attacks, the environment around them on the other hand wasn’t so lucky.

Trees were being destroyed left and right from the spiky ginger head’s gravity and telekinetic based attacks and craters were being formed in the ground from the pinkette’s monstrous strength while the boulders in the area were either getting melted into a pile of sizzling red goo by the messy redhead’s dragon puppet, getting blasted into pieces by the dark hedgehog’s chaos based attacks, or getting sliced cleanly half by the dark brunette-blonde’s staff.

It was chaos, just pure chaos in his opinion.

‘ _They’re good I’ll give them that,_ ’ he said, watching Miss Foster roundhouse kick the mercenary leader away from her and into the air. Then she jabbed the woman in the stomach and face with a good one-two-three punch combo, stunning her in the process, before blasting her in Shadow’s direction with a concentrated beam of holy energy from her staff only to get spin dashed into a nearby overturned tree by said hedgehog a second later.

**_BOOM!_ **

When the cloud of dust disappeared, he saw the woman jump to her feet with a groan then spit out a mouthful of blood on the ground. She wiped her mouth with the back of her left hand while laying her right one on her side and slowly raised her head up—

“ **A finely-sharpened blade of wind that pierces through. Wind Lance!** ”

“ **Chaos Spear!** ”

He saw the wind spirit arte and the chaos attack land their marks before the mercenary leader could even react. 

**_KABOOM!_ **

‘ _Well that’s it for her,_ ’ he shook his head, moving his hazel-red eyes away from the woman’s motionless body that was sprawled across the ground ( _face down no less_ ) in a pool of her blood and was in the process of turning into particles of mana dust, onto the cloaked trio fighting the mercenary general.

‘ _And this one’s done for as well._ ’

The poor guy was at his limit, especially from the way he failed to dodge the spiky ginger head’s Freezer Lance in time. And with a cry of defeat, the general collapsed face down on the ground in a pool of his own blood and turned transparent seconds later before dispersing into particles of mana dust.

The curly haired man sighed again and pushed himself off the boulder. He snapped his fingers and a strange black drone that looked alien in nature descended from the sky to land in front of him. He reached out and grabbed it, ‘ _I’m sure Leader will appreciate the additional data that I collected from here,_ ’ then made it disappear in his pocket dimension. ‘ _Time to check in,_ ’ he turned away.

Just before the violet-purple haired man was about to leave, his eyes caught something. He turned back around and looked in the direction of where the barrier was at.

‘ _What the—_ ’ he peered right through it and didn’t like what he saw. ‘ _Shit! That’s not good at—_ ’

**_BZZZ...BZZZ…_ **

He looked down, feeling something buzzing inside of his cloak pocket.

Realization flashed in his hazel-red eyes when he figured out that it was his phone ringing, so he pulled his cellular device out, which was a dark purple and blue color and was placed inside of a protective black case cover that had a white red-eyed skull image on the back of it, and answered it in a low voice.

“Hello?”

“ **General Umbra,** ” a mid-deep voice that was oozing with power and charisma came through. 

“Leader!” his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What are you calling me for?” he asked while keeping a close eye on the five individuals moving about on the ground below. ‘ _Interesting..._ ’ his brows rose higher above his head when he saw the pinkette heal herself before moving onto her companions to heal them as well. “Hmm?” he paused, paying close attention to what his leader was saying on the other end. “You want me to do what?” he blinked in confusion when the guy finished speaking.

His leader repeated what he said, which made the curly haired man even more confused.

“I...” the curly haired man paused again. “Fine. I’ll get it done,” he relented with a sigh.

“ **Good. Return to base once you’re done,** ” was all the leader said before he hung up.

Umbra exhaled another sigh after he lowered his phone and put it back inside of his cloak. He turned his eyes upon the group and thought for a second. 

‘ _You know what..._ ’ 

A smirk slowly made its way onto his face as he turned his attention back to the invisible barrier up ahead. 

‘ _I have an idea._ ’

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Pein wasn’t exactly paranoid seeing as he never got scared. Like at all. But he was starting to feel something strange in the atmosphere. He had felt it earlier when he and the others arrived in the clearing, but he’d been too busy fighting one of the two remaining mercenaries to even pay that strange feeling any mind. Now that the battle was over though, he couldn’t feel it anymore. The hidden aura.

A frown appeared on his seemingly emotionless face.

‘ _No. I feel that it’s still here somewhere,_ ’ the spiky haired spirit figured he should stop looking around the area with his eyes soon because of the strange look he was getting from Sasori now.

“Is there a problem, Leader-sama?”

The redhead’s question halted the conversation between Sakura, Shadow, and Jane, and only two of them directed their attention towards Pein.

“There was a hidden presence in this clearing earlier, but I cannot feel their energy signature anymore.”

All he received from the three were narrowed eyes.

“That is some troubling news,” Sakura said slowly. “Are they still in the area?”

Pein crossed his arms and said, “I believe so,” then he turned his ringed eyes over to Jane who looked to be frustrated and deep in thought. “Is there something on your mind, Jane?”

His voice broke the scientist out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see everyone’s attention on her. 

“My Doppelganger informed me that he and his partner freed everyone from their cells and that he and others ran into some trouble along the way,” there was a troubled look on her face as she said this. “They took care of the guards...but they ran into another problem immediately after. Three problems actually,” she added.

Pein narrowed his eyes at that bit of news. 

“What kind of problems?” he inquired.

The look on her face deepened. 

“More guards along with some...Hunters? Yeah, I believe that’s what he or one of the guys named Leon called them,” she furrowed her brows. “And that the building they were in is getting ready to collapse soon...” Jane trailed off, eyes suddenly flashing as she looked up and raised her staff, firing a condensed beam of holy energy into the rainy sky.

Everyone else looked up to see a purple blur fly by, avoiding the astrophysicist’s attack with complete ease.

“Damn it! I missed!” Jane clenched her teeth in irritation, her eyes following the blur that turned around in mid-air, revealing itself to be a tall man with curly violet-purple hair and hazel-red eyes. He stared right at her then at someone else behind her before turning back around. “A man—What the heck? He’s gone now!” she gasped when the mysterious man suddenly disappeared. ‘ _How did he...Huh?_ ’ she looked in front of her and stared real hard, willing her eyes to turn iridescent purple.

“Jane...” Sakura spoke up, seeing the new look on the younger woman’s face, and before she could continue any further, the dark brunette with blonde bangs and red tips shot forward with her hand stretched out in front of her.

“What is she doing?” Sasori furrowed his brows when Jane released a short burst of her mana into the air. “Oh...” his usually sleepy-lookin' grayish-brown and yellow eyes went wide in shock when a barrier materialized in front of the woman’s hand. “I see,” was all he said, clearing his shock away.

Jane released another burst of mana...only she directed it into the barrier this time and shattered the thing into a thousand pieces. 

‘ _There we go,_ ’ she slowly exhaled as she deactivated her ability and lowered her arm. “There was a barrier here this whole time. I wouldn’t have noticed it until that guy disappeared right here before our very eyes...” she turned her head, “...Until I looked at this spot with my special sight ability,” and explained this over her shoulder to them. “I’m sure Pein noticed it way before I did with his Rinnegan eyes,” she added with a smile before turning back around.

“Hn,” Pein shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly, neither denying or confirming the human woman’s statement, his eyes staring straight ahead.

Seeing the puzzled looks on the other two’s faces, Shadow turned his head.

“Jane has a unique ability that allows her to see things that are invisible to the naked eye,” he explained to the duo before turning back around to look at something.

The cousins nodded their heads and followed the hedgehog’s line of sight.

Up in the far distance, and surrounded by a bunch of dead trees, a large mansion stood there. Although there was no visible fire in sight, they could see flickering red lights and smoke pouring out of every window in the mansion. 

And yet, there was that same curly haired guy they saw a few seconds ago just standing there, a mere two feet away from the main entrance’s double doors.

He had his head turned slightly to the side, as if he was looking back at them and waiting for them to do something.

It was the hint in his hazel-red eyes that told Jane what to do.

“I think we should follow him,” she suddenly suggested, ignoring the group's suspicious looks. “I know that it could be a trap waiting ahead for us, but I have a distinct feeling that he will lead us somewhere in that mansion. To our friends, maybe? Who knows,” the young woman looked over her shoulder for a few moments. “Also...let's not forget that he had plenty of time to attack us when we were occupied with those mercenaries earlier. He could've ambushed us, but he didn’t. Instead, he left us alone and waited for the battle to be over before making his way over here. He could've gone inside already, but he didn't. Instead, he waited for us,” then she turned back around and finished with, “And now...it looks like he wants to help us. At least that’s what I’m getting from all of this and the emotion in his eyes.”

Pein stared at the woman’s back and uncrossed his arms. 

“Very well,” he closed his eyes before opening them back up. “It’s your call, Jane. You lead the way,” he decided, much to the surprise of his companions and an emotionless Shadow standing behind him.

Jane twisted her head back and shot a surprised look at him. 

“Really? Are you sure, Pein?”

He gave her a simple yet firm nod of his head.

“Okay,” she turned back around again, with a smile in place. “Let’s go team!” she commanded before taking off.

Pein and the other three followed soon after.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

It didn’t take them very long to reach the mansion, and right as they ran through an open gate and entered the front yard, the curly haired man turned into a shadow, swerved back around, and ran right through the closed double doors.

Without stopping, Jane simply raised her staff—

**_BOOM!_ **

—And destroyed the entrance doors in one fell swoop.

_**THUD!** _

Once that was done and over with, she and the others ran inside.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

General Umbra disappeared up the stairs, ignoring the decayed walls that were dripping with water from the ceiling above as he flew through the messy hallway filled with holes and claw marks on the ground, turning himself invisible and cloaking his energy signature as he did so. Quietly, he moved past four Hunters that were walking around aimlessly and reached a door at the end that had deep scratches all over it. 

Before he proceeded further, General Umbra checked behind him to see if those reptilian creatures were looking his way. After confirming that they, in fact, weren’t, he turned back around and carefully dropped his invisibility state—but not his shadow form. Then he jumped through the door and entered a new hallway, immediately going invisible again.

His hazel-red eyes looked around at the place, taking notice of the debris scattered around the corridor that was filled with even more holes and claw marks than the previous hallway he just came from. 

**_DRIP...DRIP..._ **

It didn’t help that the whole ceiling was wet, and it also didn’t help that the whole corridor was freezing cold.

**_DRIP...DRIP..._ **

A few droplets of water fell on his head and slid down his back, but he ignored all of that and he looked below him. There was a lot of water he could see steadily rising on the floor. If he were to drop down and land on the ground, the water would probably come up to his knees.

**_DRIP...DRIP..._ **

‘ _Let's see here..._ ’ he began, ignoring the water drops when he finally looked up. ‘ _Aha!_ ’ a glint appeared in his hazel-red eyes the second they landed on a door at the end of the corridor—and what a familiar door it was at that. ‘ _This corridor leads right to that buffoon’s office,_ ’ he stated darkly.

Before he could even begin making his way over to the door, General Umbra heard the shrieking of the Hunters in the other hall.

**_THUMP...THUMP…THUMP!_ **

“Looks like those B.O.W. abominations sniffed out some prey nearby,” he whispered, turning his invisibility off for the time being.

“ ** _*sneezes*_ ** **My nose...!** ”

“ **Oh** **_*cough*_ ** **god! It** **_*cough*_ ** **stinks** **_*cough*_ ** **in here!** **_*cough*_** ”

“ **You got that right! The inside of this mansion reeks of smoke, blood, and chemicals.** ”

“ **Well this place does look like it’s about to come crashing down on us in flames any second now, so let’s hurry up and look for some clues on our friends’ whereabouts, find them, and get the hell up out of here.** ”

“ **Jane.** ”

“ **Hmm?** ”

“ **There are some stairs here. We should take them and see where they lead us to.** ”

“ **Alright. Thanks for the heads up, Pein.** ”

“ **You're welcome.** **And as for you three, I would advise you to lower your voices some. We wouldn’t want to attract all the hostiles I sense in the building to our location now, would we?** ”

“ **No.** ”

“ **Good. Now, be on your guard and get ready. I feel one heading towards us right this second now.** ”

“ ** _*sighs*_ ** **Great. I guess destroying the front door wasn’t such a good idea after all.** ”

A smirk appeared on his shadowy-silhouetted face when he felt five familiar energy signatures coming up the stairs that were just a couple of floors down below from this one.

‘ _These poor guys have no idea what they’re in for._ ’

With a quiet chuckle, General Umbra changed his mind on going into Sergeant Duke’s office and, instead, disappeared into the wet wall.

Because right then and there, he decided that he was going to let the group explore this hall as well as the office, should they ever survive an encounter from the B.O.W.s, that is.


	10. Chapter 10

Stepping into a dark spooky mansion filled with debris on the ground and holes in the scratched up walls was like stepping into a haunted house on Halloween night, except this wasn’t a haunted house, and today sure as hell wasn’t the thirty-first of October. Why, they were nowhere near the month of October yet. They were still in the middle of July back at home, dealing with the rainy and windy weather. It had been like that, on and off, for the past four weeks she last checked.

No, this was a huge mansion. Just a strange, insanely huge mansion that looked a little too similar to the ones her cousins and their friend explored before in the past. There were some areas that were blocked off—and not only, but there were some pieces of wood nailed onto the few broken windows she could see up ahead in the distance, with shards of glass on the creaky wooden floorboards next to them to be exact. 

Furthermore, there were a few doors up ahead that looked like they'd either been knocked down or were missing a knob, which meant that someone had broken it. 

As for the stairway she could see up ahead in the corner of the hallway...there were a few steps that were missing, but it still looked stable and sturdy enough to cross them.

Indeed this place seemed to fit the bill, especially with the few splatters of blood she could see on the floor, walls, stair steps, and doors.

The young woman didn’t know whose blood that was, but she sure as hell hoped that that wasn’t any of her friends’ blood—or anyone’s blood she knew for that matter. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself from going crazy with worry if that turns out to be the case. 

So for now, she’ll keep thinking that it's somebody else’s blood. Possibly even the bad guy’s blood. 

Or perhaps all this blood belonged to the owner of this mansion, along with their guards, seeing as it couldn’t have come from just one person alone, but who knows.

Still, aside from the mystery of whose blood that is, there was just no way this place, as broken down as it looked, would be abandoned. Pein did say that the place was crawling with hostiles after all.

What kind of hostiles? Jane didn’t know. 

But if she remembered the stories Chris, Claire, and Jill told her, about creepy mansions and building structures containing things that looked like they were ripped straight out of a bad horror movie or a zombie apocalypse film, then she had a very, very good idea on what kinds of horrors they were about to experience—

“It’s above us,” Pein spoke up right as they all entered another corridor, after climbing those stairs of course, that was pretty spacious in size.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

—Like right now.

Damn...They have good timing.

Jane heard Sakura blurt out, “What the hell is that thing?!” before they all jumped into the air, avoiding the huge white claw belonging to an extremely dark green blur that swooped past them and hit the floor below them instead with a loud **_crash_**.

When she and the others landed some feet away, Jane frowned at the sight of the creature’s back. And when it turned around to bear its sharp canines at them, flexing its huge claws that were stained with blood as it did so, her frown deepened.

Crouching and growling at them from behind a broken piece of debris, there was a large six foot-something human-reptile hybrid creature with glowing yellow eyes and what looked like mandibles on the sides of its scaly face. It had a bulky frame with long muscular arms and legs, all equipped with deadly long claws ( _four on each hand and three on each foot_ ) that looked very, _very_ sharp. And yet, despite being of reptilian nature, the thing had no tail to speak of in plain sight. 

Although it had a scary looking appearance, the creature was in fact quite ugly...and a little cool to look at. It felt so fascinating to observe this peculiar specimen—this amazing human-reptile hybrid ( _she blamed all of it on her scientific brain okay. Give her damn break!_ ) and the way it glared at all of them and the so-called “barrier” in its way for a few short moments.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

Then it brought its sharp claws down on the piece of debris, damaging it some.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

All of this was interesting to watch, but only from a short distance away.

Still, Jane knew what this thing was. She heard plenty of stories ( _not so good ones_ ) about these things and what they’re capable of.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

The creature broke through the debris and flung the remaining pieces of it out of the way before it ran right at them.

“Never did I ever think we would run into one of these ugly bastards,” Shadow said as he pulled out a gun from out of nowhere and, “Die!” pulled the trigger.

Sadly, the human-reptile hybrid creature dodged the bullet and leaped towards them with an outstretched claw.

“What is this thing?” Pein asked as they all dodged to the side, letting it slide past them.

Screeching in anger, the creature turned around and tried going after them again.

“A Hunter,” Shadow answered, ducking under its swing.

“What’s a Hunter?” both Sakura and Sasori asked as they rolled out of the way of its attack, leaving it directly in Jane’s path.

Said woman waited until the Hunter was less than two feet away from her before ducking under its strike and hitting it in the gut with her staff. “A Bio Organic Weapon made by the infamous pharmaceutical company called Umbrella back on Earth,” she said, watching the reptilian creature get knocked back into a wall and cracking it. “From what I learned through my cousins and their friend, this B.O.W. in particular was created by mixing reptilian DNA with a fertilized human embryo that’s been infected with a virus—the T-Virus to be exact. And that virus plays the role of a bonding agent to that thing I guess,” she explained to the three warriors.

The Hunter shook its head before getting back up. It roared at them again and raised a claw. Before it could attack though, Shadow fired his gun rapidly. And this time, all of his shots successfully made contact.

“Raaaaaaahhh!” the B.O.W. squealed in pain and fell to ground under the spray of bullets.

Unfortunately for them, that sound seemed to have attracted the attention of other hostiles in the near vicinity. 

**_BOOM!_ **

The door behind them busted wide open as four more Hunters poured into the hallway, roaring and flexing their claws in greeting when they spotted them. 

“And I think it’s about time we go now!” Jane exclaimed as she vanished her weapon away and ran past her companions, swiftly moving to the left to avoid the injured and bloody Hunter who nearly decapitated her. “Let’s not waste it by fighting these guys!” she shot through the open door in a brown-blonde blur and ran down the hall.

Shadow and the other three turned and ran after her, ducking or rolling to avoid the other four Hunters’ attacks, and went through the door before shutting it closed behind them in a flash.

The group continued onward, their forms becoming a mere blur as they sped down the hallway, and ignored the urge to look back, especially when they heard the familiar screeching noises as well as the sound of a door being slammed open way behind them.

**_THUD...THUD...THUD...THUD...THUD!_ **

“Those things can open doors too?!” 

“They sure can! Trust me when I say that they’re an intelligent bunch!” Jane answered Sakura’s question.

The group of five ran up several flights of stairs, passing the many doors on those floors along the way until they reached the fifth floor. And it was on this floor in particular that they discovered how narrow yet open the corridor was.

It seemed to stretch on for miles, and it sure looked that way.

But, if it wasn’t for the rectangular shape of the hallway itself, accompanied by the balcony railing that was built into the ground near the edge of it and looked wet to touch, the group would’ve thought this corridor led a straight shot towards another door. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case here.

“I don’t hear the Hunters behind us anymore,” the pinkette said after shutting the door closed behind her. “I think we lost them,” she added with a sigh of relief.

“For now we did,” the Rinnegan user pointed out as he took a look around the new area they found themselves in. “I have no doubt that we’ll run into them again at some point during our search for the others,” he explained in a low and ominous voice.

“Ah, that is true,” Sakura groaned in realization, now agreeing with the ginger haired spirit’s statement.

Sasori sighed a little in irritation and said, “It would’ve been better if we had just killed them instead.”

“And waste whatever little time we have left before this whole place goes up in flames? I don’t think so,” Shadow huffed. “I’m not wasting any more bullets or my energy on those things when we can just simply avoid them. I say let someone else deal with them.”

“Speaking of the place going up in flames, why isn’t this floor on fire too?” Sakura tilted her head to the side in question and observation, her eyes plastered somewhere past their heads. 

Shadow crossed his arms over his chest as he continued looking around the hallway.

“Because some of the floors we passed by looked as if they'd been flooded with water, which means someone or something put out the fire. And from the looks of it, this hallway got the same treatment,” he said with narrowed ruby red eyes.

Tuning out their conversation with a shake of her head, Jane looked about the hall with bored golden brown eyes, searching the area for anything of interest until they landed on something sparkling in the distance.

‘ _Oh? What’s this?_ ’ turning to her right, the young hybrid woman saw a total of three cherry oak wood doors across from her and her little group. They were all located over on the other side of the area and spaced ten feet apart from each other. And despite all of them being the same exact color, each door had something shiny etched onto it. 

She squinted her eyes.

‘ _I wonder..._ ’ the young woman trailed off as she walked up to the railing, grabbed a hold of it, and jumped over the balcony hall floor.

Seeing movement across from him, Pein looked up and spotted Jane climbing up and over the railing on the other side of the hall.

“Jane...” he called out to her, cutting the conversation between the others short. “Where are you going?” he questioned the woman walking over to one of the three doors and stopping right in front of the first one.

The young scientist turned around and faced the group.

“I found something interesting over here,” she answered, waving them over. “Come take a look at these doors you guys.”

Nothing but silence rang among the four as they turned and nodded their heads.

Without warning they leaped over the railing and landed gracefully on the other side of the hall in a crouch.

“What’s so interesting about these doors here, girl?” Sasori asked as he and the other three stood to their feet and walked over to Jane who was already observing the strange door from every angle. 

He received an exasperated look in return.

“Just...look at them. Please.”

Pein didn’t know how the others felt, but he himself decided to humor her.

“As you wish.”

He looked up when they came to a stop near the woman and stared at the object in question.

The door.

“Hmm...”

As Shadow, Sakura, and Sasori walked past them and started wandering over to the other two doors down the hall, Pein took a step closer to inspect the one in front of him and Jane. Slowly but surely, he reached up and placed his left hand on the door. Then he carefully traced the wood with his thumb, index, and middle fingers a second later, just to get a feel of it.

“..........”

After finding nothing out of the ordinary with its structure, the spiky haired spirit removed his hand, letting it drop at his side, and went about looking over the door with his eyes instead.

Two things stood out to him immediately. 

One, he noticed the difference of color between the squares that covered the whole door from top-to-bottom and the door itself. The squares were painted a nice mixed shade of gold and bronze while the door was just a plain ol’ rich brown color. 

And two, there was a small clover symbol etched onto the wood. Aside from it being outlined in green, the inside color of the clover was completely black. 

“This door has a black four-leaf clover symbol with a green outline over it.” 

Jane walked around him to take a closer look, and sure enough, she saw what Pein had described to her on the door.

“I wonder what this door leads to though...” her eyes fell upon the door knob with a green colored keyhole on it. ‘ _It’s probably locked, but I’m gonna try opening it anyway,_ ’ the young woman said as she grabbed the door knob and twisted it. ‘ _Come on. Open for me—_ ’

Nothing happened. 

‘ _Damn it!_ ’ she dropped her hand with a frown, disappointed that the door did not even budge an inch.

“It’s locked,” Pein remarked from his position next to her.

Jane sighed.

“It would’ve been too good to be true if the door hadn’t been locked anyway,” she mumbled to herself and turned her head slightly, looking at Shadow standing in front of the second door and the cousins standing in front of the final door out of the corner of her eye. ‘ _I wonder..._ ’ raising her voice just a bit, she asked them, “Any luck with the doors down there you guys? What do they look like?”

“Negative. The door has a black diamond symbol with a blue outline over it. The keyhole is colored blue as well,” Shadow replied, glaring right at the door in front of him.

“It's locked over here too I’m afraid. The door has a black skull symbol with a white outline over it. The keyhole is colored white as well,” Sakura answered with a sigh while her cousin stood back and stared irritably at the door in front of them. “I assume that each door will need a special key of sorts that matches their respective symbol on it to open it, maybe?” she added with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Or we could just pick the locks and see if that works?” Shadow suggested. “Less work than trying to look around for some damn keys up in this place.”

The look on Sasori, Sakura, and Pein’s faces said it all. They didn’t have anything on them that could break the locks. 

However, a sigh from the only human in the group drew their attention.

They looked over to hear Jane mumble out, “Guess I’ll have to do it” and see the brunette with blonde-red tipped side bangs pull out a switchblade. She walked up to the four-leaf clover door and fiddled with the lock for a minute or two.

**_CLICK!_ **

‘ _One down, two more to go._ ’ 

Jane left Pein’s side and scurried over to Shadow, who moved back without a word to let the woman work her magic, and crouched slightly in front of the diamond door.

Fortunately, this lock took less than a minute for her to break before she got up and moved onto the final one, the door with the skull symbol on it. And unlike the last two, she found this lock much easier to break, which she did in thirty seconds flat.

Why it was like that, Jane didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to question it.

‘ _Aha!_ ’

Once the familiar sound of a **_click_ ** reached her ears, Jane smiled and stood to her feet.

‘ _I'm glad that’s over with now._ ’

When she turned around to face the group, she found everyone staring at her in amazement.

“What?” she asked, confused.

Sakura took a moment to gather her bearings.

“That was...How in the world did you—” she shook her head and, instead, asked in an incredulous voice, “What kind of switchblade do YOU have that can act like a lock pick? One that can open ANY door?”

Jane scratched her cheek sheepishly.

“Uhh...a special one,” she answered before a tiny smile bloomed onto her face. “I actually had this custom made for me from a friend of mine. She gave it to me as a birthday gift five years ago,” she explained while walking back over to the first door.

Pein hummed and closed his ringed eyes, even more impressed with the young woman’s skills.

“What an interesting little tool you have at your disposal. Usually, most tools have only one function because they were designed that way. For example, the pocket knife or switchblade works as a carry item that you can close and put in your pocket without having to worry about carrying the thing in your hand at all times. And the lock pick does exactly what it’s called,” he said, lifting his eyes open. “I never would have thought to combine the two together and make it into one whole item, so kudos to the one who came up with the ingenious idea.”

Jane’s cheeks flushed under his praise.

“Thank you,” she breathed out.

Before he could say anything or react to that bit she revealed about herself, the young scientist whirled around and twisted the door knob.

This time it did open.

“So I guess we’re splitting up to cover more ground then?” 

Shadow gave the pinkette a side look, “Seems that way,” before turning back the door in front of him, which he opened without a second thought.

“Here you three.”

The dark hedgehog and the two cousins looked up just in time to see three black microphone headsets flying their way, and the trio caught them before they could hit the ground.

“We will use these to keep in touch. If you find anything useful or the others, call me or Jane,” they heard Pein explain to them as they put their headsets on. 

“And if you happen to run into any more Hunters, try to avoid them. If you can’t, then just get rid of them. But only use that option as a last result. We’ve already wasted enough time in this building as it is,” Jane added.

“Right! / Hai!”

Jane braced herself before venturing into the new hall with Pein strolling in behind her. And just before they heard the door closed, the two heard Shadow, Sakura, and Sasori walk into their own respective areas, shutting their doors closed behind them.

* * *

**_|**SKIT 002: JANE, THE SECOND MASTER OF UNLOCKING!**|_ **

* * *

_“About that skill of yours...” — Pein_

_“Hmm?” — Jane_

_“With the way you handled those locks on the doors back there, would you consider yourself a master at picking locks? It sure looked like it. — Pein_

_Jane gave him a surprised look._

_“Oh no, no no no I’m not. I may be good at picking them, but I’m nowhere near being a master at it. *she laughed* That title solely belongs to my friend, Jill Valentine. She’s the real master of unlocking locks!” — Jane_

_“Is that so?” *he placed his hand underneath his chin in thought* “This Jill person...is she the friend you spoke of earlier? The one who gave you the custom made switchblade?” — Pein_

_Jane shook her head._

_“No, that was another friend of mine named Lady.” *a smile appeared on her face* Although she taught me a few things like how to wield it, use it, and such, Jill was the one who actually taught me how to pick locks with it after I told her what the switchblade was capable of doing.” — Jane_

_“Interesting.” — Pein_

_The smile on Jane’s face turned into a sheepish one, which confused the man spirit._

_“Some of the places I tried it out on were...uhh..._ **_important_** _—” *she stopped at the amused look on Pein’s face and turned pink. “I-I had scientific reasons for doing it okay. Don’t judge me, Pein!” — Jane_

_“I didn't say anything.” — Pein_

_She then gave him a deadpanned look._

_“Anyway, now that I’ve been taught by Jill and have become good at picking locks, her friends and my friends have jokingly told me that I’m like the “Second Master of Unlocking” or something similar to that. *she rolled her eyes in exasperation* It’s ridiculous I tell you.” — Jane_

_“I see.” — Pein_

* * *

The spiky haired spirit walked up to Jane.

“Walk or run?”

The young woman looked up to find Pein standing next to her, surveying the area around them with the look of concentration in his narrowed ringed eyes.

“Well…”

She, too, looked around the hall and noticed how narrow yet wet and damaged the area was. It was in the same state as the last corridor was, except this one was just a tad bit worse because of the debris, giant human sized holes in the walls, in the middle of the floor, and in the ceiling, which allowed the rain from outside to come pouring in. 

‘ _Sooner or later this whole hallway will become flooded and no longer usable._ ’ 

Jane scowled at this. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to swim their way through this mess by the time they have to backtrack here because that would be awful. 

“Considering the sorry state of this corridor...” she looked down at the water lapping at her booted feet as she said this, “I think we should run,” then looked back up to see the spiky haired spirit staring at her now. “But not too fast to where we might end up skipping something important. I’d feel horrible if we did that,” Jane finished with frown.

Pein nodded his head in understanding.

“Running it is,” he looked away and gestured his hand at the path in front of them.

She flashed him a quick smile before taking off. And not a second too soon, she sensed more than heard him coming up right behind her.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Somewhere on the very top floor of this mansion...

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW_** —

**_BANG!_ **

A stampede of footsteps ran past a large body, bulky and reptilian-human in shape, that fell to the ground, dead with a smoking bullet wound in its bleeding head.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

Lady, who was running next to Vergil but behind Doppelganger Jane and Doppelganger Shadow, turned around and saw two Hunters descending from the air towards the other two mobians with their claws raised above their heads.

“Tails! Rouge!” she called out to them, drawing their attention to her. “Duck!” she gave them a warning by whipping her gun up, and they followed it when a few bullets soared over their heads and hit the B.O.W.s.

**_BOOM!_ **

Blood splattered the walls and ceiling as the two Hunters dropped like a sack of potatoes, wringing on the ground in agony.

Unfortunately, their dying cries were loud enough to make the ones who passed by their bleeding bodies, such as the nine tailed fox, Amy, Elize, Teepo, Loki, Tony, Jude, Wingul, and Leon, flinch.

“They’re so loud!” Teepo whined from above Elize’s head.

“You got that right, talking dolly,” Tony grumbled under his breath.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

Another Hunter appeared in front of the large group—

“Judgement Cut!”

—Only to scream in pain when it got torn apart by an army of distorted black and blue blades that suddenly flashed into existence before their very eyes.

And before the majority of them knew it, the reptile-human hybrid creature let out one final scream and exploded in a shower of blood and guts that unfortunately rained down on them.

“Oh my god! Vergil! Look at what you did!” Doppelganger Jane screeched in slight disgust and anger. “Now we’re all gonna stink so bad from this!” she added, throwing a quick glare back at the half-devil who flicked the blood off Yamato and slid the sword back in its sheath with a resounding **_click_** , and continued running ahead of the group.

“Hmph!” Vergil swept his hair back in place like he had not a care in the world, essentially removing any blood that had been previously stuck in there. 

“Indeed. I, for one, do not like being covered in blood. Period,” Wingul spoke from somewhere in the very back of the group.

“And I certainly do not like running around in this dreadful state either, flinging blood off our bodies everywhere, with every step we take too. I could easily see someone slip and hurt themselves in this mess,” Loki added his two cents in.

Elize and Jude made a noise of agreement.

Vergil almost wanted to roll his eyes at their complaints, but he didn’t.

“Be thankful I took the initiative to take care of that abomination first when I could’ve easily just let any one of you do it instead. I know you’re fully capable of it,” was all he said.

Before any one of them could retort back, a small group of Hunters jumped out. 

Tired of dealing with this madness, the huge nine-tailed fox ran past the other members of the group and jumped in front of the doppelganger duo, blowing the B.O.W.s away with a small black orb of energy that had a purple outline around it.

**_KABOOM!_ **

Doppelganger Jane and her partner stopped before they could run into one of the fox’s tails and closed their eyes when a cloud of smoke engulfed them, the whole hallway, and everyone else in it. 

Seconds passed before the smoke died down, and when it did, they opened their eyes.

The two saw nothing but a completely destroyed corridor in front of them. Hell, even the whole floor up ahead was gone. And so was the ceiling, which had a hole in it... 

**_DRIP...DRIP..._ **

...A giant one, almost twelve feet long, to be exact.

**_DRIP...DRIP..._ **

“Thank you…” Doppelganger Jane looked at the orange fox looming about eight feet in height above her and everyone else. “...Kurama...” ignoring the surprised look in his eyes, which were colored red, she looked back down to observe the area once more. “Though you might’ve overdid it with your Tailed Beast Bomb there. Now we can’t proceed forward,” she finished with a frown, totally ignoring the drops of water falling on her head.

The huge nine-tailed fox named Kurama just stared at her.

**_DRIP...DRIP..._ **

“What?” she asked, biting her lip nervously.

**_DRIP...DRIP..._ **

He shook his head, which relieved the woman somewhat.

“We can reach the roof from here. It’ll be much quicker this way.”

**_BOOM!_ **

At the sound of thunder, everyone looked up...

...Only to be greeted by a downpour of rain leaking in through the massive hole in the ceiling. 

“Oh come on!” more than half of them cried out in surprise or protest.

“Wonderful. Just great,” came Leon and Loki's sarcastic grumble.

“Well look at the bright side of this you guys, we won't have to worry about the blood on our bodies or clothes anymore!” Tony said cheerfully.

...And they got pelted by a few drops of hard rain that immediately turned into hail.

“That could work I suppose,” Doppelganger Jane said to Kurama. Then she looked at her partner for a moment before turning around to face the rest of the group. “What do you say everyone? Shall we see what’s on the roof of this mansion?”

The majority of them nodded their heads while the rest of them shrugged their shoulders and said “I’m fine with that decision”.

“Alright then. Let’s go!” Doppelganger Jane commanded.

In the next second, all fifteen of them leaped into the hole.


	11. Chapter 11

Things tend to drag on when you have lived a long life, at least that’s what it felt like to General Umbra. Sure, when he was younger and at the prime of his life, it didn’t feel like it.

But now?

Well, he was tired. Just bone dead tired.

He was tired of his comrades, tired of his leaders and their goals, their allies, everything. He was done putting up with them.

So imagine his surprise when he got a call from the leader earlier to go retrieve _something_ from a **_certain someone_ ** because that person had been leaking information to an outsider and doing some shady things behind their back. 

Although the sudden news may or may not have shocked General Umbra considering that he’d been hearing rumors of some strange shit going on for the past few years surrounding one of the members of their organization, he felt as if he really didn’t give a damn about the leaker.

No, he truly didn’t care about all of that because he was happy. He was excited. And the reason for that is because he was in the clear.

He was not being watched for suspicious behavior anymore—and that was good news to him. It meant that his leader trusted him to go on solo missions again—although the man shouldn’t. No one in the organization should, to be frank. Not when he had Lux, his lieutenant, take over his position for a bit while he was on leave elsewhere, and not when a lot of their men went MIA on them only to turn up dead some months or years later.

When that happened, half of the members immediately put the blame on Lieutenant Lux. But when he, too, ended up dead one year later after those incidents, nearly everyone in the whole damn organization ( _including Leader and Master_ ) became suspicious. They became suspicious of each other—and they especially became suspicious of him and Duke. In fact, they accused them and labeled them as the two most prime suspects. The ones who committed the crimes.

He didn’t know how all of them came to that conclusion, but he found it goddamn hilarious. Please, as if he was responsible for the man’s death. Or even wanted him dead in the first place.

Ridiculous. 

Even if he didn’t like that cocky, smart-ass lieutenant of his that much, he wouldn’t go as far as to torture the poor fool to death before finishing whatever was left of him off. He was just not that kind of person, believe it or not.

But still, General Umbra didn’t blame them. The organization had the right to be suspicious since he’d been one of the two last people to have talked to him before his untimely demise. 

However, he turned out to be innocent, much to their irritation ( _biased bastards they were_ ). 

In the end, he wasn’t the one who killed off their precious lieutenant. It had to have been someone else. They just didn’t know who the perpetrator was. It could’ve been anyone really. 

Hell, maybe it could’ve been someone who was close to the organization. Very close. But seeing as they couldn’t find the suspect who did it, everyone had to be put under strict surveillance, and he hated it. Loathed it even. 

It was frustrating how he couldn’t do anything or go anywhere out in the universe without someone or something breathing down his neck, making sure that he wasn’t up to no good ( _even during his break or vacation time he wasn’t safe from them_ ). It made working and going about his usual business that much more harder. 

It had been that way at least up until now.

So after half a millennia, after five hundred years of watching his back and being careful not to piss anyone or his superiors off, he was finally free. 

He was free from the suspicious looks and glares he got every time he walked through the meeting hall, and he was free from being under surveillance.

He was happy that he could go anywhere now. He could do as he pleased. 

And that’s exactly what he was doing right now. 

Planning...

...And more planning.

However, it was time to put some of those plans in motion now. He’s waited over three millennia for this day to come—and that is the fall of his former organization and so-called comrades. 

He cannot fail this time around, not when he’s been given a second chance in this new universe. 

This time, oh this time, he _will_ make things right and try to keep everything intact the best way he can.

‘ _Let’s just hope that this universe doesn’t suffer the same fate as the last one did, destroyed by an insanely powerful yet horrible, vengeful three-headed chimera._ ’ 

“ **Oh god, this place is a mess too! Flooded even!** ”

“ **In that case, we’ll have to swim our way across to get to the door.** ”

“ **Great...And here I was thinking we weren’t going to have to do that.** ”

“ **Don’t complain, Jane. Just do it.** ”

General Umbra’s eyes snapped open the moment he heard a door being shut closed and sensed two people swimming past his little hiding spot. Feeling somewhat confused, he decided to poke his head out of the now-damp wall without making a single sound. He turned to the right to see Jane Foster and her spiky orange haired friend stop right in front of the door leading to Sergeant Duke’s office, wearing some type of headset over their heads. 

‘ _So they did survive the pack of B.O.W.s after all. I had a feeling they would,_ ’ he said with a small inward chuckle right before a frown covered his shadowy face. There was something missing here from what he was noticing, ‘ _Wait a minute..._ ’ and it didn’t take him very long to figure out what the problem was. ‘ _Where are the other three at?_ ’ he wondered, the curiosity lingering strong in his voice as he looked around the area for the rest of Miss Foster’s friends.

“ **Uggh! If only I had a fire attack, I could—** ”

“ **Let the flames engulf you! Flame Ring!** ”

The water in the corridor began to hiss, and smoke rose to the surface as the water quickly started to go down. 

‘ _I see. What a clever way to get rid of the water._ ’

“ **O...kay then.** **Good thinking there, Pein** ** _._** ”

By the time General Umbra looked back at Jane and that Pein guy, all of the water had evaporated, leaving the messy and hole-filled hallway feeling all dry and warm. But in all honesty, it was definitely a huge improvement compared to what he felt earlier, that’s for darn sure.

“ **Now we can proceed forward.** ”

“ **Yes, but I have a feeling that this door is locked, so let me just...Huh?** ” 

“ **What is it?** ”

“ **That’s strange. The door’s not locked. Hmm. Oh well. Let’s not worry about it for now and just head inside, okay?** ”

“ **Hn. Sure.** ”

The two opened the door, walked inside, and shut it closed before he could even blink. 

“ **Holy—Pein! Look at all these computer monitors and gadgets here! And these books...They look so...** ”

“ **I’m over here looking at these documents sitting on the desk, Jane.** ”

“ **Oh.** ”

“ **Come over here and take a look at them.** ”

“ **Alright.** ”

The moment he caught the word “documents”, however, his ears tuned in. It was possible that whatever the two were looking through in there had to be important. Though why that buffoon left any of his important papers behind if he had been in a hurry to get out he didn’t know, but he was curious. 

‘ _Let’s see what you’ve been hiding in your office, Duke._ ’

With his mind now made up, the general pulled the rest of his shadowy body out of the wall and turned his invisibility off. Then the curly haired man made his way over to the wall directly next to the door and went through it.

A flash of light greeted his eyes when half of his body appeared in the room and made him flinch in response.

‘ _Well they found the light switch at least,_ ’ he jokingly said in his mind before he opened his hazel-red eyes back up. He then searched the office, completely ignoring the twelve monitors hanging overhead, for the two until his eyes finally caught sight of something brown and orange towards the back. 

The purple-violet haired man turned in that direction to see Jane and Pein up ahead, standing side-by-side next to each other, practically invading each other’s personal space as they hovered over the desk filled with a lot of stuff it seems. 

However, he wasn’t concentrating on that at all. No, it was the few stacks of paper in their hands and the words they spoke that drew his attention.

“Energy transfusion? Ritual seals? Safe lock combinations? And this is paper...it’s got a list of people’s names on it and mine too. There’s Lady, Vergil, Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Miles Tails Prower, Amy Rose, Leon S. Kennedy, Elize Lutus, Teepo, Wingul, Jude Mathis, Tony Stark, Loki Laufeyson, and Kurama, which says the Kyuubi right next to it in parenthesis,” Miss Foster read off from the papers in her hands. “There’s a few other names on here as well, but they’ve all been crossed out. I assume that means they’re deceased?”

“It’s possible,” Pein said. “There’s some more stuff written on here. Sergeant Duke, please observe and study these individuals...take their energy...and if possible, capture them,” he skimmed through the papers in a low voice. “This is...data. Very basic bibliographic data to be exact, although the majority of it is specifically battle data.”

“Information that was probably collected from us without our knowledge that’s for damn sure,” Jane added with a growl. “What the hell would he need our energy for? And a lot of it in vast amounts too?!”

“I don’t know,” Pein mumbled. “Hmm...virus samples? What?” he read some more in a confused voice. “Select those who you think are compatible and—”

“What?” she interrupted him in a dangerously low voice. “That...that bastard was going to...” Jane trailed off, choking in pure frustration at what she heard. “Let me see that,” she suddenly snatched the paper out of his hands and skimmed through the rest of it, mumbling a couple of inaudible words and what sounded like a “Fuck!” until she lowered the paper and fell completely silent.

Although he couldn’t tell what that man or Jane’s expressions were because they had their backs to him, General Umbra knew for sure that Pein was bothered and Miss Foster was livid—if he were to go by the small killing intent he could sense from her, that is. 

“Jane?”

The young woman didn’t answer until about a minute later when she straightened her back, making her spiky haired companion back up and do the same. 

“Doppelganger contacted me and told me that he and the others are in a bit of a jam right now. They can’t get out and the whole place is about to—”

**_BOOM!_ **

“ ** _WARNING! WARNING!_** **_THE SELF DESTRUCT SYSTEM HAS BEEN ACTIVATED! I REPEAT, THE SELF DESTRUCT SYSTEM HAS BEEN ACTIVATED! THIS SEQUENCE CANNOT BE ABORTED! I REPEAT, THIS SEQUENCE CANNOT BE ABORTED! ALL PERSONNELS PROCEED EITHER TO THE BOTTOM PLATFORM OR ROOFTOP AREA IMMEDIATELY!_** ” the alarm went off again.

“—explode in fifteen minutes,” she said quietly.

Aside from the alarm blaring loudly in the background, the whole room was silent.

Jane tensed when she felt a strange feeling wash over her. It wouldn’t do her no good to ignore it, so she listened to her instincts and held onto the wall next to her. And it was a good thing she did too because in the next few seconds, the floor beneath her feet began to rumble.

‘ _Oh no..._ ’

That rumble soon turned into a violent shake, and it started rocking everything in the room from side to side.

But miraculously, nothing fell over. 

“You alright?” her eyes didn’t miss the way Pein clenched his teeth when she turned her body around. 

All she received was a nod in response.

Jane sighed at her friend’s answer and that sigh quickly turned into a relieved one when the room finally stopped shaking.

"If you say so...huh?” her voice trailed off at the sight of a silhouetted body with curly hair and hazel-red eyes flying out of the wall in a hurry. “Oh...!” a gasp left her.

She recognized those hazel-red eyes. They were familiar to her.

“It’s you...” Jane whispered, staring intently at the mysterious curly haired man.

Pein turned around and stared at him too, but he didn’t say anything. He knew the guy had been hiding there in the room with them all along.

**_KABOOM!_ **

All three of them tensed when the walls around them blew up, letting a cloud of smoke blow in seconds later.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the smoke to die down and when it did, Pein looked up while the man turned around—

**_BOOM!_ **

‘ _Wha...?_ ’ 

—Only to see a blue-green shield of energy in front of him, protecting him and Pein from the debris in the room that was now on fire.

General Umbra blinked and looked right at the woman.

“Miss Foster, you...”

Jane ignored the guy for the moment and took a few seconds to gather up all of the papers and books in her arms.

“I’m taking this stuff with me so that I can read through it properly later on,” she told Pein and vanished the stuff away in one of her dimensional pockets. 

“Go ahead,” was all he said.

After that, the young scientist turned back around and removed the barrier she placed down seconds ago.

“As for you...” she looked at the mysterious man once more. “Can you lead us to the roof of this mansion, Mister?” she demanded in a polite voice.

He narrowed his eyes at her then at Pein before turning away from them both. 

“It’s...Umbra,” he said and then added, “And I guess I can.” 

He opened the door and disappeared down the fiery hall without so much as saying another word to them. 

Silence surrounded Jane and Pein as they left the office and ran to catch up with Umbra. 

“ **:Come in, Jane! Can you hear me?:** ”

Without taking her eyes off the man’s shadowy form as he led them out of the corridor and up a flight of stairs next to it, Jane pressed a small button on the side of her headset.

“Loud and clear, Sakura. What is it?” she asked.

“ **:Sasori and I didn’t find much of anything other than a few Hunters, giant bugs, and a strange humanoid creature with no skin and a long tongue roaming around, which we’ve avoided. We also ran into Shadow about a minute ago, and right now, we’re all heading up the stairs to the top where we heard the explosion came from!:** ” Sakura replied back.

“Alright, thanks for letting me know! Pein and I just finished retrieving some documents and we’re now heading towards the same direction you three are going to...with a little bit of help from our, uhh, guide you could say,” Jane carefully explained to her as she and Pein finally reached the top of the stairs, only to start climbing up another set right after.

“ **:The roof?:** ” Sasori spoke this time.

“ **:Who?:** ” Shadow asked in a suspicious voice.

“Yes, the roof. And Shadow, it’s the same man who led us to this mansion,” she answered.

“ **:Ah,:** ” Shadow replied back.

“ **:I see. But still...be careful you two!:** ” Sakura advised her.

“We will!” Jane said before she heard a low **_beep_** , indicating that they all hung up, and dropped her hand from her headset.

“Just another floor above this one and we’ll be at the roof!” Umbra said from somewhere far ahead of them.

The two said nothing as they sped up and reached the top of the stairs in ten seconds. Before they continued forward though, they stopped for a moment to check out the new area they stepped foot in. And so far, the only thing that greeted their eyes was fire... 

...Lots and lots of fire that was crawling along the walls and on top of the debris sitting in the middle of the floor.

* * *

**_|***SKIT 003: THAT BASTARD IS STILL GOING DOWN!***|_ **

* * *

_There was a troubled look on Jane’s face that Pein immediately took notice of._

_“Worried about what we’re going to face on the roof?” — Pein_

_Jane closed her eyes and shook her head._

_“It’s not that. I’m just thinking about that creature behind all of this. He looks...different.” — Jane_

_“What do you mean?” — Pein_

_“Well...” *she took a paper out from one of her dimensional pockets and motioned him come over* “There’s a really old picture of him on this paper here. He doesn’t look too different from what I can tell right now, but in this, he has canine-raven features and silver-red eyes.” — Jane_

_Pein moved closer to her and looked at the paper as well._

_“And what’s his current appearance like now?” — Pein_

_“He’s a canine creature with fox features and plain ol' red eyes. There was no silver to be found in them at all.” — Jane_

_The spiky haired spirit moved back as the young woman put the paper away and his brows shot up at the new look on her face._

_“Maybe he’s wearing a transformation glamour over his body, perhaps?” — Pein_

_“Maybe. But whatever, I don’t care. That bastard is still going down!” — Jane_

_Pein watched the woman run off and resisted the urge to sigh._

_‘Wonderful...she’s all fired up now.’ — Pein_

_Still, the corner of his lip twitched a bit as he ran after her._

* * *

The two carefully made their way around the debris and the fire burning on top of it until they reached the other side and came across a wide hole in the floor. They jumped over it, landing gracefully on the other side and continued on until they reached a corner. The two turned it and saw General Umbra waiting for them by an elevator door at the end of the hall.

The shadowy man with curly hair looked up.

“There you two are,” he said with a sigh at their approaching forms. “This elevator will take us the rest of the way up,” he turned around and pressed the down button on the door.

“I’m surprised the thing is still even working,” Jane looked at the door with a raised brow.

“Let’s not jinx it now, Jane,” Pein mumbled to her.

“Yeah. Please don’t,” Umbra mumbled in agreement.

Jane winced and silently nodded her head.

The group of three stood there, waiting for about a minute or so, until the last light that was colored green above the elevator door came on, and with a short **_ding_** , it opened up. They all quickly shuffled inside and noticed how spacious it was.

“Let’s see...”

General Umbra parked himself in front of the button panel while the other two walked past him, heading over to one of the corners in the back. The curly haired man looked at the various numbers on the buttons until he found one that had the letter “R” on it.

‘ _Ah. Here we go,_ ’ he pressed it and stood back when the door shut them in.

As the elevator began to move up, the curly haired man closed his eyes and dropped the shadowy veil from his body. Once he was finished with that, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his cloaked chest. He soon became lost in his thoughts, completely ignoring their stares, and started drumming his fingers on his arms until he heard Miss Foster call his name. 

“What?” he stopped and cracked one hazel-red eye open.

“I noticed you and that creature share the same similarities when it comes to the eyes, except he’s more...beast-like...I wanna say, while you’re more human-looking I guess,” she carefully said and looked at the purple-violet haired man in front of her curiously. “What are you two anyway? Are you related to one another? Species wise I mean!” she corrected herself.

General Umbra stared at her for a long time until he finally said, “We are what we call “ **S** **hadow alien beasts** ”. But Sergeant Duke is more beast-looking than I am. And the only reason for that is because he is an _animal_ _type_ of alien beast while I’m more of a _human_ _type_ of alien beast you could say,” and looked away. Then he looked up at the lights and stared at them instead. “Does that answer your question?”

Jane hummed but said nothing as she continued observing the man-beast in front of her.

Pein on the other hand though...

“If that is the case, then why are you helping us? What do you gain by revealing this kind of sensitive information to Jane and I? Do you not care about the safety of your friend? Or the secrecy of your kind?”

General Umbra cracked his other eye open and slowly turned his head in Pein’s direction.

“Because I want to,” he simply said. “As for your second question, nothing...” he turned away and pushed himself off the wall, uncrossing his arms as he did so. “And no, I don’t. I couldn't care less about that fool or the secrets of my people. So do whatever you want with him, and do whatever you want with the information I’ve just given you. I already got what I came here for.”

Before the two could even begin to question, let alone demand, what he meant by all of that, the elevator door finally stopped in its tracks and opened up with a **_beep_**. 

Without a word or so much of a backwards glance in their direction, Umbra ran out of the elevator.

“Hey wait!” 

Seconds later, Jane and Pein ran out and got hit by a downpour of rain.

“Oh come on now!”

**_BOOM!_ **

Thunder boomed overheard, causing a small yelp of surprise to leave Jane’s lips. She looked up and glared at the flash of lightning in the dark cloudy sky through her wet bangs, which she flicked out of the way in irritation moments later. 

“I seriously cannot believe I forgot about the weather out here,” Jane crossed her arms in pure frustration, still irritated with the weather out here. However, that ire of hers rose when a fat drop of water almost landed in her eyes. “Uggh, stupid rain!” she added with a grumble, trying her best to ignore the sudden chuckle behind her, and looked around the area.

“Hey wait a minute...”

Confusion filled her whole being when she didn’t spot their guide anywhere. He was nowhere to be found or seen. It was as if he’d vanished the moment he stepped foot out here. 

“Where did Umbra go?”

Right as she asked that, a loud explosion occurred. It was a powerful one that rocked the whole mansion and nearly blew them off their feet. 

**_KABOOM!_ **

Then a second one appeared...

**_KABOOM!_ **

...That was quickly followed up by a third one.

“What is going on here?!” Jane cried over the roar of the thunder, wind, and rain. “Oh crap!” she quickly dropped to her knees to avoid a sharp piece of debris that flew over her head and crashed somewhere behind her—and hopefully it wasn’t the elevator or Pein that got hit by the debris because that would be bad if that actually had happened.

“There’s your answer right there, Jane,” Pein suddenly appeared right next to her, sporting no injuries on his body or tear marks on his thick cloak whatsoever, much to her relief.

“Huh?” the long dark brown-blonde haired woman stood to her feet and looked in the direction of where he was pointing at. “Oh my god!” she gasped in shock.

Up ahead in the far distance, and on a few levels below this pavement, she saw a sea of unidentified figures moving across the smaller rooftop sections that were all connected to this one. 

‘ _Okay, I take that back about this place being a mansion. It should be considered a damn castle with how freaking_ **_huge_ ** _this whole place is, especially if you were to look at it from way up here!_ ’ her eyes scanned over the moving figures and the battle itself taking place before her.

**_BOOM!_ **

They were fiercely clashing attacks with a half-dozen armed warriors in armor, a large group of Hunters ( _ten of them she counted_ ), a seven foot-something creature with longs sharp claws and no clothes to speak of on his pale-and-grotesque-looking humanoid body, and a giant oni-like monster firing beams of energy down at them, leaving miniatures explosions and shock waves in his wake.

**_BOOM!_ **

However, there were a few figures down there that she immediately recognized.

“Vergil! Lady!” she shouted at them, her eyes glued onto the pair fighting back-to-back. They soon went wide in shock when the two got hit and thrown into the air by the flying forms of Shadow, Leon, and Loki. “Guys!” she cried out worriedly.

**_BOOM!_ **

Unfortunately, due to the loud wind and thunder booming overhead, they couldn’t hear her.

“ **Haha,** **you will never escape from here with your life intact you hear me!** ” came the familiar taunting voice of _that bastard_ , who was actually standing on top of the giant oni monster’s head and laughing down at the people below him with red eyes filled with glee and madness.

**_BOOM!_ **

Jane’s eyes narrowed into slits when all five of them crashed into one of the pillars that was lying in the middle of roof tiles. 

She quickly turned to Pein and said, “We need to go down there and help them!”

“Wait, Jane, we need to make a—”

One blink and she was gone in a single jump below. 

Stunned, Pein walked over to the edge of the pavement and looked down to see a dark brown-blonde blur hopping from one wet rooftop section to another, taking care not to slip, trip, or fall over any of the debris lying in the way as the rain poured down on her mercilessly.

‘ _Reckless, so utterly reckless._ ’ 

He couldn’t help but shake his head.

‘ _She is so much like Sasori in that regard. They both truly don’t know how to wait for anyone._ ’

A small sigh escaped from his lips as he jumped down and ran after the human woman, his body turning into an orange blur as he flew across the rooftops at high speed.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

An explosion of agony rippled in waves all throughout their bodies as they slid down the broken pillar and fell forward onto the tiled roof with a long drawn out groan. 

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

They weakly raised their heads to see five Hunters running across tiles of the roof at them, and try as they might, the five were too tangled up with each other and too much in pain to get up and move.

“Well isn’t this such a pathetic sight to see!” they heard one of the armed warriors from somewhere up ahead laugh at them. “It’s over for you five!”

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

Only two of them managed to catch the glint of victory flashing in the reptilian creatures’ yellow eyes as they leaped high up into the air and raised their claws above their heads. 

‘ _I don’t think so!_ ’ 

Vergil gritted his teeth and slowly yet carefully raised his hand —that was clutching onto Yamato very tightly— from out underneath Shadow’s quilled back while Loki raised a glowing green hand from out underneath Lady’s stomach area. Then the two looked up and glared at their incoming foes.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

Right as the Hunters descended on them, ready to dish out a lethal final blow, they all saw two blurs fly overhead.

“Gravity Blast!”

“Shinra Tensei!” 

**_KABOOM!_ **

The group blinked in surprise at the sight of the Hunters being thrown back from an invisible force that felt so powerful that the tiles in front of them blew up, sending more than a few pieces of debris, as well as a cloud of smoke, up into the air. And they all shut their eyes when the stuff came falling back down—but thankfully around them.

Hearing a small **_thud_ ** drop down on the roof close to them, the group opened their eyes and, with some slight difficulty, rolled off from each other.

“Are you five alright?”

Vergil, Shadow, Loki, Lady, and Leon slowly sat up with a wince and looked ahead.

Through the receding cloud of smoke, they saw the soaked backs of Jane Foster and a man standing tall in front of them and the giant hole in the roof, their hair billowing or moving in the wind that just blew by.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

“About time you two got here,” Shadow spoke up first.

Without taking her golden brown eyes off the Hunters, who were now getting to their feet, and the three armed warriors approaching her and Pein, Jane tilted her head slightly to the side and gave the group behind her a smile.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized to them. “We didn’t mean to keep you guys waiting.”

“Well you sure have been doing that a lot lately, Jane.”

The young woman huffed, feeling more than a little amused by Vergil’s annoyed response, and turned back around. However, that amusement of hers died out the moment she saw her foes running at them, letting out a collective battle cry as they did so. This made her shake her head in slight disappointment.

‘ _Whatever! Let’s get this over and done with!_ ’ a complete mixture of determination and excitement flashed brightly in her eyes. And so, with a short enthusiastic cry in her mind, she concentrated on summoning her trusty weapon to her side. 

‘ _Come out, Mūnsutā!_ ’

In a flash of bright light, her staff appeared in her hands. 

No words were spoken between her and Pein as they both slid into their own respective battle stances at the same time, a plan quickly forming in their minds.

‘ _I got it!_ ’ 

The two turned towards each other and shared a look.

It was a certain kind of look that spelled mutual trust and understanding, one that was born from working together for a _short_ amount of time.

“Ready?”

“I was born ready.”

In a flash, the two turned around and got ready for their upcoming battle.


	12. Chapter 12

The two saw the first Hunter leap forward with its left claw raised and moved. Jane rolled to the right while Pein jumped over it, the creature’s claw missing him just by a hair, and the B.O.W. landed behind the human woman with a disappointed cry.

That unfortunately turned out to be a bad idea for the B.O.W.

“Hey!”

Because the second it turned around, Jane had already turned on her heel.

“It’s over for you...” her golden brown eyes glowed a fierce molten amber color when she raised her staff up, “Goodbye!” and right as she brought the weapon down, a single bolt of lightning appeared in a flash above their heads, lighting up the rainy and stormy sky a brilliant blue-white color.

**_SWWWWICK!_ **

The Hunter staggered back, screeching and flailing its arms about as a fountain of blood erupted from its chest, and somehow, the creature managed to avoid the woman’s second strike with its clumsy footing. But in the midst of righting itself, the B.O.W. slipped over an uneven roof tile and the puddle of blood that was pooling beneath its feet. 

Before it could even do anything, the Hunter met its end a few seconds later, via a swirling black hole of crackling orange-white energy.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

The hole sucked the screaming B.O.W. inside and sealed itself up—but not before it compressed the body of the creature until there was nothing left of it behind, first.

**_BOOM!_ **

“One down...” 

Jane lowered her hand as she said this. Then she turned away from the explosion...

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

...And blocked the incoming attack with her multi-purpose staff. She looked at Hunter no.2 with unimpressed eyes and simply vanished her weapon away without warning, making the creature topple over, “An arte that pierces foes with spires of rock from the earth below. Grave!” and impale itself on top of the rock spikes that erupted from the ground. 

“Two down...”

Jane summoned a barrier, blocking a beam attack fired by one of the armed warriors up ahead, and dropped it—

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

—Only to put it back up again a second later to deflect Hunter no.3′s attack that came down on her from above. And when the B.O.W. got sent flying back from the collision with a **_boom_ ** through a cloud of smoke that appeared afterwards, Jane finally dropped her shield.

“A finely-sharpened blade of wind that pierces through. Wind Lance!” she then sent the green light-like arc blade through the smoke, slicing through it in the process, and towards the surprised Hunter.

**_RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!_ **

“Three down...” 

Jane ran past Hunter no.3’s dead corpse, dodging multiple beams of energy along the way until she reached the attacking warrior and vanished right before his eyes, avoiding the final beam that crashed and exploded in the spot she’d just left seconds ago. 

“Your aiming sucks by the way,” she bluntly told the warrior, appearing behind him in a flash and making him turn around in shock. “You should really work on that—” she ducked under his punch. “And maybe your speed too, I guess,” she added with a smirk.

A vein popped on the side of the man’s head. 

“Shut up!”

Her smirk widened.

“Nah, I don’t think I will,” she said to him cheekily, all with a smirk on her face no less.

Another vein popped, but on the other side of his head this time.

“Why you—”

Jane then turned serious. She dropped to her knees in a crouch, “Aqua Sweep!” and quickly swept him off his feet and into the air with the back of her leg, leaving a small wave of water and a trail of bubbles in her wake. “Your reaction time is quite lacking as well. That’s a weakness that should’ve been trained out of you a long time ago, soldier,” she casually pointed out to him, her voice completely bored. 

“I don’t need your remarks or your advice, woman!” the man finally snapped at her and, despite his falling form, managed to flip his body over so that he could properly aim his gun at her. No, he wasn’t going to kill her. Just incapacitate her so that he could drag her over to his boss, Sergeant Duke. “Now go the fuck to sleep!” he pulled the trigger.

**_BANG!_ **

“You have got to be kidding me!” he cried in outrage when the bullet flew past its target. The woman had somehow managed to get out of the way in that short amount of time. ‘ _Fuck this woman’s speed! Why in the world is she so goddamn fast and strong? She's a human for Pete's sake!_ ’ he pulled the trigger again.

**_BANG!_ **

She dodged that one too.

“Stay still!”

**_BANG! BANG!_ **

She ducked then side flipped over the next two...

“Damn it!”

**_CLICK!_ **

...And ran forward.

“Palm Strike!” Jane sent the angry and shocked man flying with a powerful hand thrust.

He crashed into two nearby Hunters, dropping his gun in the process, and all three of them fell in a pile of heap on the tiled rooftop. They all groaned or growled in pain and sat up. 

“Icicles project forth to attack any hostiles...” 

Before the trio could get up though, a chanting Pein appeared in their field of vision with a glowing blue-white portal ready in front of him. 

“Freezer Lance!” the spiky haired spirit finished, killing them on the spot.

**_BOOM!_ **

“Die you spiky haired spirit!” 

Jane looked up and over to the side to see a beam heading directly towards her battle companion.

‘ _Oh no you don’t_ ,’ she narrowed her eyes and moved.

Pein didn’t even have to do anything because Jane suddenly flashed to his back and deflected the beam with her barrier, making it ricochet off to the side and hit three other warriors and the remaining Hunters instead, killing all of them in the process.

**_KABOOM!_ **

Jane let out a wince when she heard the roof **_creak_ ** beneath her feet. It creaked once more when she and Pein shifted their weight and held their ground to avoid being blown back by the aftershock. 

It rippled in waves and traveled all throughout the tiles, shaking the entire building structure up and down for ten seconds until it slowly started to die down.

And when it finally did, Jane stood up straight and looked around the area cautiously.

“I...” a frown suddenly appeared on her face. “I don’t believe that was a good idea,” she said with quiet admittance.

The deadpanned look Pein gave her when he turned around to face her made Jane want to shrink back...

**_CREAK!—_ **

**_CRACK!_ **

...Which she unfortunately did—

“Aw crap!” Jane looked down in surprise.

—And got her foot stuck in the hole as a result.

It seems as if the explosion took off some of the tiles and damaged various parts of the roof around them ( _including the spot she and Pein were currently standing in_ ), making the structure a little too unstable to stand on. 

**_BANG! BANG!_ **

**_TWACK!_ **

Hearing the sounds of shooting behind them, Jane turned her head to see Pein twirling the black and white rod he suddenly had in his hand like a windmill, deflecting every bullet that was being fired away in their direction. 

‘ _Thank you Pein._ ’

Jane smiled, knowing that her partner got this, and turned back around. Then with gritted teeth, she braced herself on the one foot that wasn't stuck and pulled on the other. 

But her foot would not budge.

‘ _Come on..._ ’ she tried again.

**_BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!_ **

**_TWACK! TWACK! TWACK! TWACK! TWACK!_ **

After struggling and pulling for about a full minute, Jane finally managed to free her foot, ignoring the sudden jolt of pain that shot up her leg when she stepped away from the now-bigger hole in the roof.

**_CRACK!_ **

“Oh crap...” she stared down at the cracks forming in the building structure with slight trepidation and worry in her golden brown eyes.

**_CRACK!_ **

Pein and his foes looked down as well.

**_CRACK!_ **

Due to the amount of force Jane had used to free herself with, the whole roof beneath them all **_creaked_ ** for the final time before caving in. And one by one, all of the damaged parts broke apart with a collective loud **_snap_** , causing everyone to leap away from the collapsing rooftop structure. 

**_BOOM!_ **

As the duo descended from the air, Jane spotted Shadow and the others doing the same from their own rooftop section, which had been destroyed as well, out of the corner of her eye.

But, the second they made a landing on another smaller rooftop area about thirty feet away from her and Pein’s falling forms, they had an enemy on their tail. 

A certain enemy with pale humanoid skin and sharp claws to be exact. 

And right now, he was running towards them with his blood-stained claws raised at his side and above his bald head.

‘ _Shoot! It's the Tyrant! I almost forgot about him!_ ’ she bit her lip to quell the worry she could feel bubbling up in her chest.

The young woman knew it would only be a matter of time before the super B.O.W. landed a nasty attack on them, and judging from the severe wounds she could already spot on their exhausted bodies ( _especially Lady, Shadow, and Leon’s_ ), they were all starting to tire out. Vergil and Loki looked like they were having some trouble moving around on the slippery rooftop, and that was only due to the sparks of electricity running along their wet bodies every few seconds or so, while the other three looked extremely pale in the face. They also had a purple line running over the bridge of their noses, which immediately alarmed Jane.

‘ _That's not good at all._ ’

The first two were paralyzed while the latter group were all poisoned, Jane mused and looked away from the group as she and Pein finally landed on another rooftop section high above the one they were standing and fighting the Tyrant on. 

**_THUD!_ **

Too bad that relocating from one rooftop to another didn’t stop their enemies from following them and landing on the same exact roof as them.

‘ _Damn it...!_ ’ she reluctantly faced her foes with a glare. ‘ _What can I do?_ ’

Her instincts were screaming at her to ignore these guys and go help her friends who were clearly in some need of assistance. But with the two remaining armed warriors closing in on her and Pein with the quickness, she just knew that things were about to get really messy around here.

**_BZZZZZZZTTTTT!_ **

The dark haired woman took a moment to dodge the beams, moving away from the area and away from Pein who also jumped out of the way to let the attacks pass through. She heard him land on another rooftop section somewhere to her left below her, casting and firing off various water and lightning based artes at one of their attackers, and was thinking about going down there to join him until she heard the sound of something whistling through the air at high speed.

Recognizing the sound for what it was, Jane didn’t even bother to look up and just flipped over the offending object in mid-air instead, which turned out to be a sharp blade of wind.

“That awfully looks like...” she blinked and suddenly turned around, expecting another attack to appear.

A moment later, it happened.

“Yep. I knew it.”

And she wasn’t disappointed.

“ **Eight minutes and thirty seconds left till this whole place blows up! You all are never getting out of here!** ” she heard _that bastard_ from somewhere up ahead in the distance laugh maniacally as she dodged the second blade of wind thrown at her by her other attacker who had finally decided to come join her up in the air.

‘ _Already we’re wasting time here by fighting these guys,_ ’ Jane glared at the warrior when he flew forward to attack. 

But she wasn’t having any of that. 

“What the—”

Jane caught his arm mid-punch and twisted him around. 

“A tornado of absolute destruction. Cyclone!” came Pein’s strong voice.

**_WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRL!_ **

Then with all her might, she turned and threw him the rest of the way down, directly in the path of a greenish-white and grey tornado that held his comrade captive inside.

**_BOOM!_ **

Jane ignored the explosion and ignored the two’s dying screams from within the attack taking place above her as she continued to descend. It was a good thing Pein casted his spirit arte a good distance away from her, otherwise she would’ve been affected by it as well. Cyclone, from what she knew, was a widespread attack after all.

‘ _Well the saving grace is that he knew where I was going to be in the area, so it’s fine,_ ’ she sighed in relief upon reaching the roof that was in near sight. ‘ _God! This roof isn’t going to last much longer!_ ’ a frown made its way onto her face at the state of the structure, though it deepened the moment her feet made contact with the roof—in the form of a small **_thud_** no less, which she internally winced at.

And then it **_squeaked_** , much to her displeasure. 

Curse her landing. It wasn’t as smooth as she had hoped for, and some part of her just knew she wasn’t going to perfect that landing in a soundless manner beforehand, but whatever. She should be grateful that it didn’t so much as break underneath her weight.

‘ _That can still happen I suppose._ ’

Jane sighed, seeing as there was nothing she could really do to prevent that from happening. It’ll break eventually. But for now, she’ll just have to be careful—and Pein too. 

“That’s the last of them it seems,” said man spirit’s voice broke her from her thoughts.

Jane looked up to see the tornado finally die out in front of the spiky haired spirit.

“Hey Pein, do you think you can go and check on Shadow, Vergil, Lady, Leon, and Loki for me? See if they defeated their enemy yet?” she immediately made a beeline towards him.

He turned around at the sound of her question.

“Then once you’re done with that, can you look for everyone else and bring them all here towards this spot?” she added, stopping in front of him.

He looked down at the woman.

“Even if there’s a small chance that their enemies will follow us here?”

Jane gave him a reassuring look.

“Yes, but don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of them.”

Pein said nothing and continued staring at her. A few awkward moments of silence passed between the two with just him observing her, contemplating over his next words carefully. And just when she was about to speak up again, he turned away and finally said something.

“Wait here.”

He disappeared.


	13. Chapter 13

The air was so thick and so heavy with tension that anyone could literally choke on it or drown in it. The anticipation was there, yes. She couldn’t miss it even if she were to ignore it. Hell, she could literally taste the feeling right now! It was so weird!

But there was something else she could feel, and it was just...sitting there. Unfortunately, that feeling was buried underneath the storm of emotions she could feel swimming in the air. Naturally, it was coming from her group and the two enemies in front of her. The sensation of it all was starting to make her feel a little claustrophobic ( _despite being outside_ ), but she wasn't going to let that get to her.

" **Why are you resisting your inevitable defeat and capture for the second time? Aren't you all tired yet?** "

The doppelganger of Jane Foster glared at the giant oni monster and the canine-vulpine creature, the one named Sergeant Duke, approaching her and her group with menacing steps, and the two were letting out an impressive amount of killing intent from what she could sense. The oni was also gathering some energy near his mouth, forming it into a large ball that will soon turn into a beam. This she knew.

‘ _This isn’t good. We’re all very low on our respective energies. And to make matters worse, none of our attacks are doing that much damage to him..._ ’ she frowned, not liking the dark grin that was slowly climbing its way onto Sergeant Duke’s lips. ‘ _If we can just find a weak spot or maybe even find a way to get rid of the guy’s barrier that’s trapping us here and disable the oni’s regenerative abilities, I believe we’ll finally have the advantage in this battle._ ’

“ **I can tell you that whatever you’re planning right now is not going to work,** ” Sergeant Duke sneered down at them. “ **So give up!** ”

“IT'S USELESS!” the oni spoke up with an evil laugh.

Ignoring their words, Doppelganger Jane looked the two over and searched for anything out of the ordinary or any clues that might lead her to an answer.

‘ _There’s gotta be something we can do here._ ’

“ **Well it was fun playing with you all, but I think it’s about time to wrap up this little battle don't you think?** ” 

The group said nothing aside from narrowing their eyes at him.

Sergeant Duke raised a brow.

" **No answer then? Heh, that's fine with me!** " he finished with a grin and commanded his underling to attack them.

The oni obliged, grinning evilly. 

“YOU'RE FINISHED!”

‘ _Oh no the hell I am not!_ ’ Doppelganger Jane summoned her weapon and fired a holy beam of energy as soon as the oni fired his own beam.

**_KABOOM!_ **

The two attacks collided, covering the area in a cloud of dark smoke that left her and her group in a coughing mess.

“Watch out Jane!” she heard Tails choke out in warning behind her.

The dark brown-blonde haired woman looked up to see the oni’s massive fist coming down on her and before he could land the hit, a massive bolt of purple-white and blue lightning appeared in the sky above them and struck the battlefield seconds later, creating a large dome of pure crackling energy that caused her and her group along with the oni and Sergeant Duke to jump back and away from each other.

“No, it is you who’s finished, shadow alien beast.”

**_BOOM!_ **

Everyone raised their heads and saw a man with piercings and spiky orange hair floating a thousand feet above them in the sky, staring down his nose at the oni and Sergeant Duke with intense lavender-purple ringed eyes that were glowing pure silver under the rays of light coming from the lighting flashing every few seconds or so behind him. 

“ **Who the hell are you?!** ” Sergeant Duke demanded with a glare, slightly intimidated by the newcomer’s insanely powerful aura and stare. It was as if the guy was looking _through_ him and not at him. ‘ ** _It’s like he’s staring into my soul or something!_** ’ he said anxiously, taking a wary half-step back.

A ghost of smirk was the only thing he received, and the only warning he got, before the mysterious man with strange eyes vanished from the air. 

“Your executioner.”

In an orange flash, Pein materialized behind the giant oni, and before the monster could even get the chance to turn around, he tripped him with Aqua Sweep and then blasted him up in the air with Shinra Tensei. Then with a burst of mana surrounding his body, the spiky haired spirit grew a pair of wings made out of pure mana and shot up into the sky after the oni and alien beast. 

“Oh Great Heavens, Shine on Me and Hear my call...”

As he flew past his enemies, his body turned gold before it bled into a soft yellow-white color that completely blinded the two below, and with a powerful flap of his glowing wings, he transferred all of that light coming from his body into a giant ball of energy and released it into the atmosphere.

“...Bless Me with Your Strength and Lend Me Your Light...”

The stormy sky flashed once then twice before it, along with the downpour of rain, slowly turned gold. Then at the peak of height, Pein stopped and hovered in the air for a long time, flapping his mana wings as he did so.

“...Grant Me Warmth, which Turns to Heat, and Summon a Storm of Pure Power...”

With a surge of his mana, an army of tiny gold shards made out of mana materialized out of thin air. One by one, they floated around his form until he raised his hands and made them spread out. And within mere seconds, they flew around the whole area until they reached the dizzy oni and shadow alien beast and surrounded them from all sides.

“...Smite My Enemies with Your Burning Wrath and Shred them to Pieces...!”

A good chunk of the golden shards flipped over and struck the two in a flash about one hundred and twenty times, exploding upon contact. 

“Blade of a Thousand Lights!”

After performing a half-turn, Pein threw his right hand and right mana wing out, and fired the remaining twenty-five shards at the two without so much of a warning.

**_KABOOM!_ **

Pein silently watched the two fall out of the sky and crash through the already damaged rooftop of the mansion below, landing somewhere inside with a sickening **_thud_**. Then he lowered his arm and dropped back down to the rooftop, the wings on his back disappearing the minute he landed near the hole the two enemies made. 

Ignoring the commotion coming from the group behind him, the spiky haired spirit walked up to the hole and peered inside.

“ **...D...amn...that....guy...** ” 

With narrowed eyes, Pein jumped down into the hole and landed on the ground near a set of broken stairs that was completely blocked off by debris. He took a few careful steps around the debris laying in the middle of the corridor and turned a corner. ‘ _There you are,_ ’ his ringed eyes caught sight of a dying Sergeant Duke sprawled on the floor next to the dead corpse of his underling, who was in the midst of fading into mana dust, and coughing up a copious amount of blood. 

There was also a briefcase sitting not too far away from his body, but Pein wasn’t looking at that. No, he was looking at something else. 

And that something else was Sergeant Duke’s new appearance.

‘ _I see. So this is what Jane was talking about earlier._ ’

The shadow alien beast now had the features of a raven instead of a fox. And his eyes were a silver-red color instead of a plain red color now.

“I’m impressed that you’ve managed to survive my attack,” he told the creature. “And it looks like you’ve reverted back to your true self...Sergeant Duke.”

At the sound of his voice, the shadow alien beast raised his head and bared his teeth at him.

“ **Who...are you?** **What...the hell...are...y...ou?** ” he bit out slowly, and a bit weakly, due to the amount of blood he already lost. He also saw no point in getting up to confront the man standing in front of him, not with the way his body was screaming in protest at him. He must’ve broken every bone in his body it seems.

And it was no thanks to the powerful being staring down his nose at him, again, his strange inhuman eyes burning a hole into his skull.

“A god,” Pein said in a powerful voice, closing his eyes.

Sergeant Duke scoffed at that before wincing in pain.

“ **Bullshit.** ”

“A great spirit,” he continued as if he didn’t hear the dying creature. “I am Pein, the Great Spirit of Weather and Storms,” he opened his ringed eyes halfway and looked elsewhere. 

Sergeant Duke noticed where the spirit’s eyes were at and although he didn’t show it on his face, he was worried. He just hoped that the guy wouldn’t notice it.

Too bad Pein wasn’t like most people.

“ **H-Hey! What are—** ” his eyes opened wider in shock when the spiky haired spirit walked up to the briefcase and picked it up. “ **Put that down!** ” Sergeant Duke shouted at him, not liking the look in the guy’s ringed eyes or the way he examined the object in his hands.

Ignoring the alien beast’s protest, Pein looked over the briefcase one more time.

“I will be keeping this,” he finally said and stashed the thing away in his bulky cloak somewhere. Then he turned his eyes back over to Sergeant Duke. “As for you...” he raised his hand, and with a flash of his Rinnegan eyes, flared his mana out. “You’re coming with me, shadow alien beast.”

Sergeant Duke sneered.

“ **Why should I? This place is about to explode in five minutes, you know. Just leave me here to die! I’m already halfway there as it is! Let the explosion take care of—** ” he suddenly cried out when he found himself trapped inside of a large bubble of water.

Pein wasted no time in directing the bubble over to his side, and once he secured his prisoner via freezing the top, bottom, and side parts of the water bubble, the orange haired spirit walked back to the spot he landed in earlier and looked up.

‘ _It’s time to leave this place now._ ’

Once he located the exact hole he was looking for in the ceiling, Pein grabbed his bubble ( _telekinetically of course_ ) and disappeared from the corridor with a high jump.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Doppelganger Jane and the others looked up when the spiky haired guy showed up in front of them, landing neatly on the rooftop. The young woman saw who was with him and didn’t question why he had the shadow alien beast with him. Or why the beast had reverted back to his normal self even. She already had a feeling in mind on what the spiky haired guy was up to, so she ignored the prisoner he had with him all together.

“I know we don’t have time to sit here and chit-chat, or even introduce ourselves, but I just want to say thank you for taking care of that pesky barrier and defeating Sergeant Duke here,” she said to the guy.

Pein nodded his head in response. 

“Now we leave?” she heard Amy ask from somewhere behind her.

Pein’s lavender-purple ringed eyes strayed over to the pink hedgehog, and he shook his head. 

“Not yet. My group and some of the members of your group are waiting for me just up ahead.”

A frown appeared on Doppelganger Jane’s face.

‘ _That’s right. Vergil, Lady, Leon, the real Shadow, and Loki did get separated from us earlier when we were fighting that oni and Sergeant Duke here,_ ’ she reminisced.

“We got about five minutes before this whole area goes up in flames,” he announced to the group.

The frown on her face deepened.

“Okay,” she said.

“Now for this weather...” 

Pein looked and stared at the rainy sky with emotionless eyes. For a moment, he just stood there and waited. Then with a wave of his hand, he flared his aura, letting his mana leak into the atmosphere. And right before his and everyone else’s eyes, the whole sky cleared up.

It was no longer raining or thundering.

Pein closed his eyes with a calm sigh.

“You can thank me later once we’re out of these woods,” he said, opening his eyes back up, and walked past the speechless group with his floating cargo by his side. 

“................” no one said anything.

“Now then...”

He stopped and looked back to see if they were following him, which they were, thankfully. 

“Follow me,” he turned back around and took off in a run, his figure becoming a mere orange blur in their eyes. 

The doppelgangers of Jane Foster and Shadow the hedgehog along with Amy, Tails, Rouge, Jude, Elize, Teepo, Wingul, Tony, and Kurama followed after him seconds later.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Sakura and Sasori looked at the group of five standing some ways across from them, checking to see if there was anything that they missed since they just got done healing the group.

“How are you five feeling right now?” Sakura asked.

Leon exchanged looks with the other four before he faced the two cousins.

“We’re not exactly one hundred percent okay, but we’re feeling a whole lot better than what we were feeling earlier. Being poisoned or paralyzed sucks,” he said. “Still, thank you for healing us.”

Sakura nodded and gave him a smile in response. 

Sasori on the other hand let out a sigh.

“If we had any energy left to spare, then Sakura and I would’ve been able to heal all of you **completely**. But unfortunately, we don’t,” he explained, turning his eyes away from the group. 

However, they narrowed at the sight of something orange coming their way. 

“Leader-sama!”

At Sasori’s sudden exclamation, Sakura turned around while Lady, Vergil, Loki, Leon, and Shadow looked up to see Pein, along with the group of people he brought with him, drop down from the sky and land on the tiles of the rooftop section they were all on. 

Before anyone could even get one word out, a black-purplish light spilled out of Doppelganger Shadow. His features as well as his form changed before their eyes, his body turning into a shadowy blob while his eyes became a deeper shade of red as he sunk into the roof. 

Then without a word, the doppelganger slipped back into the real Ultimate Lifeform’s shadow and disappeared for a good.

The area was completely silent for the first ten seconds until...

“What the? I thought he was your—”

Shadow cut Teepo off.

“My twin? No, he’s not my twin,” he wanted to laugh at the absurd thought, but he didn’t. “That was Doppelganger. He’s a shadow-like demon who has the ability to shapeshift and turn into anyone he lays his eyes on by the order of his masters. You can thank the real Jane Foster for coming up with a plan to have Sergeant Duke here kidnap the clone versions of ourselves,” he elaborated with a smirk, shocking some of the people in the group, including the shadow alien beast himself.

Elize blinked and looked over to Doppelganger Jane.

“Then that must mean...you’re a doppelganger too?” she asked, staring at her.

The young brunette said nothing and just nodded her head.

Sasori coughed to get their attention.

“Let’s hurry up and get Jane so that we can finally get out of here,” he crossed his arms in irritation.

“I concur with his statement,” Loki said as he looked at the tiles beneath him, which were beginning to heat up and rumble now. “We do not have much time left,” he looked back at the group, immediately taking notice of the fear and urgency in their eyes. 

“Let’s go.”

Pein jumped over all of them and off the rooftop, landing onto the next one below about a few seconds later. As he took off in a run, the spiky haired spirit felt the Kyuubi flare his aura and heard him say, “All of you get on. It’ll be much faster this way.” He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Kurama, who was about twenty feet tall now, running behind him with everyone else sitting on top of his back, holding on for dear life.

‘ _They must’ve not rode an animal, monster, or spirit that big in size before in their lives.’_

The spiky haired spirit shook his head, feeling somewhat amused by the situation and the looks on some of their faces.

‘ _They’ll get used to it._ ’

He turned back around and tuned into the environment around him, intent on finding Jane’s energy signature. Hopefully she didn’t get attacked by anything and wasted whatever energy she had left to defend herself with, otherwise he’ll have no signature to go off on because it was _too low._

‘ _Ah, there is she._ ’

He opened his eyes right before he jumped down from another rooftop section.

"The woods huh...” he said as he landed on the next one and continued running across it. ‘ _I wonder why she moved over there when I specifically told her to stay put._ ’

Jane probably had a good reason for doing it, he was sure. But he didn’t know.

And he wasn’t going to think about it any longer. 

‘ _I will have my answer eventually,_ ’ he looked up and saw a row of trees up ahead.

Seeing that the end was in near sight, because of the dead trees and all, the spiky haired spirit jumped down from the mansion and landed in front of the open gate below. He walked through it, existing the property, and stopped in the middle of the pathway.

While he waited for the others to catch up, Pein decided to look down and check on his prisoner in the cage. 

‘ _Hmm...interesting._ ’ 

To his surprise, Sergeant Duke was still alive, but barely. He was just sitting there with his arms wrapped around his knees, silent as a mouse, and looking around the area with half-dead eyes, which was good enough for Pein.

**_THUD!_ **

“Careful with the landing there, Kurama!” came Sakura’s voice. 

“You’re still on my back, aren’t you?” Kurama asked with a drawl.

“Well...yeah.”

“Good. Then zip it, pinky.”

He looked over his shoulder at the nine-tailed fox.

“Make haste, Kyuubi. We have about three minutes left.”

“Tch! You don’t need to tell me that, spirit gaki. You’re not the only one who’s been counting down, you know!” Kurama grouched, walking up to the tall spirit.

Pein ignored the urge to roll his eyes at him as he turned his head back around and waited for the giant fox to catch up.

And when he did, they all took off into the forest together.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Jane paused from her task of getting rid of all the dead Hunter bodies in the area with her staff and looked up.

“What was that I heard?” she asked out loud, jumping down from one of the boulders she’d been standing on. 

“Heard what?” a familiar voice questioned her.

The young hybrid woman didn’t answer as she landed on the wet ground with a soft **_thud_**. She then stashed Mūnsutā back in its dimensional pocket and looked straight ahead, staring at the dead trees leading up to the entrance of the woods in concentration. 

Despite how faint the auras were, she could sense a large group of energy signatures heading this way, and she had a feeling as to who the owners of these signatures belonged to.

‘ _One of them must’ve cleared the weather up a few minutes ago,_ ’ she mused with a smile on her face. ‘ _And_ _I bet it was Pein who did it._ ’

“Miss Foster, do you sense something?”

The dark brown-blonde haired woman snapped out of her thoughts and turned back to the person she had been speaking to.

“Yes. Everyone will be here shortly, Umbra,” she said to the curly haired man-beast leaning up against the wall of the mountain, near the cave’s entrance to be exact, with his arms crossed over his chest. “I take it you’re leaving now?” she asked, spying the look on his face.

The purple-violet haired man-beast uncrossed his arm and pushed himself off the wall.

“Yes,” he simply said.

“Oh...” was the only word she could get out.

A quiet chuckle left his mouth as he turned around and started making his way over to the cave.

“Until next time, Dr. Foster?” he threw over his shoulder.

Jane’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at his sudden offer, but then she thought about it for a second and decided that there was no harm in accepting a future meeting with him.

“Sure. I don’t mind meeting you again someday,” she told him.

Unknown to her, he hid a smirk under the collar of his cloak.

“Good-bye Umbra!” she waved at the curly haired man-beast. “And thank you for telling me about the secret shortcuts back to Earth! I appreciate it!” she added with a smile.

Without looking back, General Umbra gave her a two finger salute over his shoulder and disappeared into the cave.

“There she is!” came a familiar child-like voice.

At the sound of Tails’ voice, Jane immediately turned around.

“Jane!”

Her golden brown eyes lit up at the sight of everyone running up to her.

“Hey guys!”


	14. Chapter 14

Words could not even begin to describe how happy Jane was. To see that everyone was still alive and in one piece, especially after the ordeal they went through, with escaping from that hell hole of a mansion-like castle and all, was like a balm to her soul. And yet, despite how happy she was to see them, Jane wasn’t exactly too thrilled to see who was with them. 

Yes, she was talking about Sergeant Duke, the one who was responsible for this whole mess.

He was the one who spied on them all...

...The one who kidnapped them all...

...The one who drained and stole all of their energy until they were nearly half-dead in exhaustion...

...The one who wanted to, or at least attempted to, experiment on them all...

...The one who wanted to infect them all with a virus...

...And the one who wanted to sacrifice them all in a ritual to revive someone once everything was said and done.

Though speaking of viruses, she mused as her eyes bled iridescent purple, and with a concentrated look on her face, she looked the group over.

‘ _Let's see..._ ’ her eyes jumped over each individual the closer they got to her. And so far, she didn’t see anything wrong with a few of them. 

Vergil, Loki, Kurama, and the floating purple and pink doll were fine. Given who or what they were, Jane didn’t expect to see anything out of the ordinary in their bodies. 

The others on the other hand though...

‘ _Shit!_ ’ she cursed in her mind, her iridescent purple eyes looking wide in horror at the sight of **something** floating around in Lady, Amy, Rouge, Tony, Leon, the two black haired men, and the light blond-pigtail haired woman’s bodies. ‘ _Have they been infected?_ ’

The second Pein and the others stopped in front of her, more than a few of them noticed the dark look on her face.

“What’s wrong, Jane?” 

Her glowing eyes shot to Tails, the one who asked her that question, and Shadow, who was sitting next to him on the giant orange kitsune. Thankfully, the two were fine as well. It made sense when she thought about it because they had been with her at the time Sergeant Duke attacked them and kidnapped the doppelganger versions of her and Shadow and Tails.

“Dr. Foster?” Tony and Loki’s voices broke her out of her thoughts.

Jane shook her head, deactivating her special sight ability right away.

“It’s nothing...” then she paused, “Actually, I’ll tell you guys later...” and looked away from the two. Instead, she turned to Pein and asked him, “How much time until this whole place detonates?”

Before the spiky haired spirit could open his mouth, his prisoner, who had been quiet up until now in his little bubble cage, spoke up for him in a weak haughty voice.

“ **Two minutes and thirty seconds left.** ”

Other than narrowing her glowing eyes at the dying bastard, Jane ignored Sergeant Duke and turned her back to the whole group, silently waiting for a certain someone to say their goodbyes.

‘ _Oh..._ ’ Doppelganger Jane closed her eyes.

Taking this as her cue to leave, the remaining doppelganger slipped past the group and turned into a shadowy-red eyed blob, heading towards Jane as she did so.

“Bye everyone!” the doppelganger said without looking back at the group, her voice deepening and changing to that of a man in mid-speech. “It was nice meeting you all!” he added, and in one simple motion, he sunk into the ground before Jane’s feet and disappeared into her shadow, allowing himself to be absorbed back into the woman’s body with a wavy flash of black light.

No one from the group said anything or questioned the sudden change of the doppelganger’s voice and gender. At this point, they ( _except for Vergil and Lady who already knew the truth behind Doppelganger_ ) figured that the demon was male all along. And the only reason he changed into a female in the first place was because of Jane Foster. 

After all, he did take on the form and played the role of someone who was of the opposite gender. 

“Follow me,” Jane finally broke the silence. “I know a shortcut out of this world.”

She took off into the cave in blur. 

Pein, with his prisoner in hand, and Kurama, with his passengers on his back, didn’t question how or why she knew the way to get out of here and just followed after her.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

The rush of cold water and the familiar sensation that came along with it enveloped her whole being as she drifted towards the bottom of the pond. The young woman paid no mind to the two splashes she felt and heard behind her as she looked around the place. Her eyes flashed in relief when they landed on the rocks up ahead, and she along with her companions swam towards them. 

Jane channeled a lot of mana into her hand, making it light up purple, and touched all of the rocks one by one. They glowed white, chiming very loudly as Jane swam back over to Pein and Kurama’s side, stopping right in front of them.

It didn’t take very long for the chiming iridescent rocks to release a wave of white light that engulfed the whole group, sucking them in its warm phantom-like embrace. 

When the light died down, ten seconds later, the group of nineteen individuals were gone.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Somewhere up on the mountains in the swamp valley...

“I’m really starting to hate this weather.”

Droplets of water flew out as General Umbra shook his hair, and as a result, got more than a few curly locks stuck to his face. The man-beast said nothing as he shifted them out of the way and looked up, his hazel-red eyes locked onto the pouring rain outside of the cave he was sitting in. 

**_BOOM!_ **

Another sigh left his lips as he closed his eyes and stood up from the hard cavern floor, catching the flash of lightning in the sky the second he opened them back up. The purple-lavender haired man-beast looked over to the side to see the fire he’d started earlier and walked towards it. Then with a few splashes of dirt, the fire was put out. 

Once he was satisfied with this, General Umbra turned back around. He made his way over to the entrance of the cave and instead of leaving the place, he stopped right at the edge of it, just a step shy of being outside. 

‘ _I’m not sure how long it's gonna take for them to get here..._ ’ he said only to pause a few seconds later when he put his back to the wall. ‘ _But knowing the amount of time they had left, they’ll probably be here in this valley in less than five minutes._ ’ 

He leaned up against the rocky surface, pulling his phone out of his cloak as he did so, and started tapping away on the device. 

‘ _Hopefully, they won’t run into any trouble on the way here._ ’

Right now, the look he had on his face, as well as the way he stood there, slouching so lazily on the spot, spoke volumes of his mood. He was sure about that.

To put it simply, he was bored. Very bored.

General Umbra was so bored that he wished for—

**_BANG!_ **

**_KABOOM!_ **

The sounds of gunshots being fired and explosions going off, followed by the monstrous cries of pain, attracted his attention. The curly haired man-beast snapped out of his thoughts when he felt the cavern floor rumble beneath his feet, and he immediately stepped outside into the pouring rain. He paid no mind to the lighting flashing continuously in the dark sky as he walked over to the edge of the mountain and peered over it.

Down below in the swamp-like valley, General Umbra saw the group of nineteen warriors being surrounded by a swarm of various monsters. But judging from the way Shadow and Lady, who were standing up from their spot atop of the giant nine-tailed fox, were taking out their enemies who were trying to creep up behind Jane and Pein while they cleaned house with the rest of them told him that they were going to be fine.

And sure enough, he was right.

“That was quick,” he laughed quietly, watching the group finish off the remaining monster, an elemental ice dragon, with a combined attack.

**_KABOOM!_ **

The battle was over by the time the smoke cleared away.

“ **Jane, heads up.** ”

His eyebrows nearly shot up into his hair when he saw Pein drop the frozen cage that held Sergeant Duke inside by his feet, pull out a briefcase, and toss it over to Jane who easily caught it in her arms.

“I bet there’s some more documents in there,” he said in a mumble, and continued watching the scene.

" **Thanks.** "

While Miss Foster was busy storing the briefcase away, Pein turned his full attention onto his prisoner. He, without a word, flicked his hand to the side and released Sergeant Duke from his cage, watching the huge shadow alien beast sputter and cough on the ground with emotionless ringed eyes.

In all honesty, all of this amused General Umbra. 

He just knew the fool was about to get into a world of trouble now.

“ **Pein, I’m gonna assume that you brought him with you for me to decide on his fate.** ”

“ **That was my intent, yes.** ”

He saw the young woman turn slightly and nod her head at Pein.

“ **I’m surprised he’s survived this long considering the state you left him in, which leads me to believe that he has some kind of regenerative healing abilities. Still, he’s a fool for thinking that’s going to save him from me.** ”

Then he saw Jane turn fully around and walk over to the huge shadow alien creature. She stopped in front of him and looked at him for a few moments before saying in a low cryptic voice, “ **You know what, I’ve got no words for someone despicable like you.** ”

“ **W-Wait a min—** ” he heard him stutter at the sight of the woman summoning her trusty weapon out.

“ **It’s too late for any negotiations, beast,** ” Shadow said with a scoff as he crossed his arms.

“ **Inferno Holy Fangz!** ”

This time, General Umbra’s eyebrows did shoot up and disappear behind his wet hair when Sergeant Duke cried out in agony, his body severed in half in a flash of golden white-blue light. Though his jaw did drop in surprise when that same light transformed itself into a set of teeth entirely made out of icy blue colored flames that burned and chomped at the guy’s body a second later.

And before everyone knew it, the tall shadow alien beast was no more.

‘ _Well done, Jane Foster,_ ’ he said in his mind, turning away from the gruesome sight.

The curly haired man-beast threw one final smirk over his shoulder before he turned back around and disappeared from the area, leaving behind the large group standing in front of the mana dust remains that once belonged to Sergeant Duke.


	15. Chapter 15

The sounds of the ocean mixing in with the caws from the seagulls and the cheeps from the flickies lured the seated form of Jane into a state of peace as she leaned back against the wooden railing of the steep cliff with a quiet sigh, her golden brown eyes tracing the pink-white clouds in the early morning, salmon colored sky.

' _Beautiful..._ ' the young woman mused to herself before her eyes then caught sight of the sun rising over the horizon in the far distance, casting its warm rays of yellow light over her and the whole island she was on. When it flashed over her face for a brief second, however, she flinched and immediately looked away from the sight. Though in doing so, she missed the rest of the show.

But that was okay. She’s already seen plenty of rising suns and falling sunsets before to last her a lifetime, that small devil part of her whispered as she opened her eyes halfway.

A minute later, when she was sure she wasn't going to lose her sight from the sun that blinded her moments ago, Jane opened her eyes the rest of the way. She blinked a few times, trying to clear the haziness that suddenly fell upon her, and by the time she got finished with that, the sounds of squeaking reached her ears. 

Confused, she looked past her swinging feet and over the cliff to see a few otters playing in the ocean water, paying no mind to the waves moving around them and behind them to crash into the bottom surface of where the cliff met the tiny sandy beach area.

**_SQUEEE!_ **

She blinked when a small wave crashed over their surprised faces and bodies, pulling them under within a matter of seconds before the water finally settled thirty seconds later. However, that didn’t keep the little sea animals down for long. The young woman knew this and she laughed when she saw them break through the surface of the ocean, and with a small squeak, they shook the excess water off their bodies.

“Jane...” a familiar voice called out to her, cutting her laughter short.

The young woman said “huh” and turned around.

“So this is where you’ve been I see.”

The icy blue eyes of her friend greeted her as he strolled over to her spot by the cliffside, his spiky white hair swaying in motion from the sudden small gust of wind that blew by, with his precious Yamato in hand. 

“Vergil,” Jane greeted the half-devil when he stepped over the railing and sat down next to her, leaving a good three feet in-between them. “I didn’t know you were up. I thought you were still asleep just like everyone else was,” she said, turning back around to watch the sky.

Vergil side-eyed the hybrid woman.

“I’ve been up for the past three hours, just exploring and training,” he replied and laid his sword down before crossing his arms over his chest. Then about a second later, he looked away from her and turned his attention to the sky. “I didn’t get much excitement from it, so I went back inside. The two-tailed fox is the only one in the house that’s awake right now,” he closed his eyes in explanation.

“Oh. Okay,” she said with a nod of her head. “Since you’re out here now with me instead, I take it you’re not feeling motivated to do anything else?” she asked him, sitting back and closing her eyes as well.

“No.”

“Tch. Figures.”

The two sat there in silence, listening to the sounds of the ocean below and the wind howling and blowing gently around them, ruffling their hair and clothes ever so slightly. No words were needed as the duo were just content enough to sit there and do nothing.

It was a strange feeling to Jane because she wasn’t the type to idle. She always had to be doing something to keep her mind busy and her body going, but just this once, she didn’t mind it. She didn’t mind not doing anything. Being in Vergil’s company and hanging out with him was enough. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d hung out with him like this—and no, she wasn’t going to count the time she got here because they originally had a meeting. 

Well, it wasn’t necessarily a meeting seeing as Vergil and her were only going to the ruins, which they never got the chance to do. And they still haven’t gone there when they all got back here on the island, on Planet Earth, about a week ago. The two along with everyone else had been too busy recovering at Tails’ house and recuperating from the trip to really do anything else. 

Thankfully it didn’t take very long for her to get all of her energy back and neither did it for Vergil, Shadow, Tails, Loki, and Teepo. 

They were all fine now. 

But the same couldn’t be said for the others. 

Lady, Amy, Rouge, Tony, Leon, Jude, Elize, and Wingul were still recovering. And to make matters worse, their health was slowly deteriorating. It was hard for them to do really anything besides eating, sleeping, and using the bathroom these days. They didn’t talk that much to the six of them either, and if they did, the conversations did not last long.

They just didn’t have the energy to keep the talks going—at least, that’s what they told her and the other five. They were feeling too miserable about themselves, and they didn’t want to drag her and the others’ moods down.

But all six of them knew what it was. They could tell just by looking at them.

The virus was taking a toll on the infected group. 

Jane knew what was happening. She knew it all too well, having been exposed to the world of viruses and vaccines through the talks that the Redfield siblings and Jill gave her, that is. 

They told her all sorts of stories. And given their experiences with these kinds of things, they told her exactly what type of work they do. They did not hold back on the information either, which surprised the hell out of her, but she listened and took everything in. 

Hell, she even got a chance to look through the stuff, including extra data that their team collected over the years. It had information detailing how these horrible Umbrella scientists created these viruses, how they distributed them over the black markets or some other places, and how they even came up with a way to destroy them via creating the vaccines. 

Even though this was a big fat no-no considering she wasn’t a part of any of the organizations that Chris, Claire, and Jill worked for, they somehow managed to convince their superiors to tell her all of this highly confidential information.

And to this day, she still doesn’t know how they managed to pull that off, but she wasn’t going to complain. She was grateful for them telling her this stuff, especially after she had nearly been thrown into an outbreak situation.

It had been a close one, but the situation got taken care of before it could escalate and get out of hand. It was the first time she had even overheard someone, a shady individual to be exact, talk about injecting some poor fools with the T-virus and releasing the B.O.W.s into the city, which had already been attacked beforehand by Dr. Eggman weeks ago.

It was hard to believe that this incident happened six years ago. 

And that seemed like such a long time ago for Jane, but it really wasn’t.

‘ _Speaking of viruses though..._ ’

She had no idea how long Lady, Amy, Rouge, Tony, Leon, Jude, Wingul, and Elize's been infected for, but it was a miracle how they haven’t turned yet.

‘ _I guess having a powerful energy source or a strong immunity system must be their saving graces._ ’

Those were the only reasons she could think of as to why they were still alive, and she was thankful for that. It gave her, Tails and Loki, despite not being scientists like her, an opportunity to study them and observe their symptoms. 

And when they started to show, all three of them took immediate action. They gave the group a few medicinal based potions that she and Loki managed to whip up in a manner of days. Then with bated breaths, the three of them waited for the group’s fever and paleness to go down, which thankfully, it did. 

After that, things settled down...

...Until she received a phone call from Jill, this is.

Jane had Tails, Loki, Vergil, Shadow, and Teepo watch over the resting group while she stepped outside to take the call. She couldn’t forget that day how the B.S.A.A. woman shouted and fretted over her well-being, saying how her and Vergil had been missing for a while now along with Leon, Lady, Iron Man, and Thor’s adoptive brother. It had taken Jane a few minutes to calm the older woman down, but she managed to get the job done and explain the whole situation to her.

It didn’t take long for Jill to decide that she was coming over to Mystic Ruins with the stuff she’d requested for, and then wished her well before hanging up. 

All of that happened just two days ago.

“Jane...”

Vergil’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.

“Hmm?” she said, turning her friend.

“Who were those three people back there in the other world? Doppelganger told us that they were originally with you and Shadow.”

Realization flashed in Jane’s eyes.

“Oh! You mean Pein, Sasori, and Sakura, right?” she said. “Shadow and I met them in the swamp valley while we were on our way towards the mansion. Apparently, they’re from another whole universe.”

“Ah,” was all Vergil said.

Jane turned away and went back to cloud watching.

‘ _Speaking of those three...I wonder how they’re doing?_ ’ she asked in her head, golden brown eyes half-lidded in thought as she sat up, drew her knees up to her chest, and gingerly wrapped her arms around them. 

It was hard to believe that they were gone now. Went back to their own universe as soon as she finished off that shadow alien beast.

‘ _It’s strange...but I actually miss them, I’m not gonna lie. Plus, so many other things happened too._ ’

* * *

_(_ **_FLASHBACK SCENE_ ** _)_

_“So...you three and Kurama are leaving now? To go back home to your own universe?”_

_“Yes.”_

_The group of five, consisting of Jane, Shadow, Pein, Sasori, and Sakura, stood some ways away from the others who were taking their time getting off the giant nine-tailed fox’s back._

_“Jane?” Sakura furrowed her pink brows, noticing the expression on the other woman’s face. "Are you alright?"_

_Jane shook her head._

_“It’s nothing. I’m fine," she lied, not in the mood to tell them what was wrong with her, and so she covered it up with a smile. “I guess this is good-bye then...” she said in a low voice and held her hand out to the orange haired spirit._

_Pein reached out and took it._

_“For now, perhaps,” he said as he shook the woman’s hand before letting go. Then he turned to Kurama, who just got finished with letting the last two people jump down from his back, and beckoned the kitsune over. “Come, Kyuubi. We are leaving at once now,” he announced before leaving his group’s side for a moment._

_Kurama looked up and left the group’s side, slowly padding over to Pein’s little group. Before he stopped in front of the five though, he shrunk back to his normal size in a flash of mana that resembled flames._

_“How are you four going to get home?” Shadow asked, looking at them with his arms crossed over his chest._

_“Leader-sama will take care of it,” Sasori said, pointing at the ginger haired spirit behind them, who simply raised a hand._

_With a flare of his mana, the space in front of them wavered, as if it was being distorted by a very powerful invisible force, until a swirling blackish-blue hole appeared. And within seconds, the hole expanded, growing bigger and bigger until it reached its maximum size, which was about half the size of a house._

_Jane gasped in surprise while Shadow raised a brow in interest when Pein stepped into the hole._

_“That’s...”_

_Sakura grinned._

_“Incredible? Yeah! Pein can do some incredible things with his gravity manipulation ability. Bending space and time to rip a hole that can lead you to another location is just one of the many things he can do with it,” she told the two. “He’s extremely powerful.”_

_“I can see that,” Jane said with a laugh. ‘I wanna learn how to do that too without relying on Mūnsutā one day,’ she quietly thought to herself in longing._

_“Hmph. Powerful indeed,” Shadow commented in agreement._

_With a smile and a wave of her hand, Sakura turned around and started making her way over to Pein, who was waiting for them, with her cousin and Kurama following close behind her. They reached the their friend’s side in no time at all, and before they walked any further, the group turned on their heels to face Jane and Shadow._

_The Ultimate Life form said nothing and nodded his head at them in good-bye._

_Jane on the other hand..._

_“Bye Pein! Sakura! Sasori! Kurama!” she waved, smiling at them. “It was nice meeting you all!”_

_The group nodded at her and Shadow in response before the hole suddenly closed up._

_Jane lowered her hand and turned to her friend._

_“Let’s join back up with the others.”_

_Shadow uncrossed his arms._

_“Hmph.”_

_The two turned around and walked over to the others who were waiting on them._

_“You look like you got something on your mind, Jane,” Lady said when the two stopped in front of them._

_Jane let out a tired sigh, which confused the group and Shadow._

_“I do, actually. And it has to do with what I found in some of you guys’ systems.”_

_With a heavy heart, Jane began explaining to them what she saw earlier._

**_xXXXXXXXXx_ **

_By the time she was done, the group of thirteen were left horrified by the news._

_“Yeah, umm, that’s...that,” Jane had a sad look on her face as she struggled to get her words out afterwards. “Sounds horrible doesn’t it?”_

_“..........” Wingul, Jude, Lady, and Tony had no words to say._

_“No way...” Rouge uttered in shock._

_“W-We’re...” Amy trailed off in fear._

_“Infected?” Elize finished for her with wide eyes._

_Jane nodded at them solemnly._

_“I suspect that it was Sergeant Duke’s doing. And the strain he used could’ve been the T-virus along with...something else mixed with it. I’m not too sure what that second component is at the moment.”_

_That extra bit of information made the majority of them angry, and Jane didn’t blame them. If she had been infected alongside them, she, too, would’ve gotten angry at the situation and at that beast._

_Leon, despite how worried he was on the inside, looked calm, cool, and collected as he placed his fingerless gloved hands on his hips and lowered his eyes to the ground._

_“What do you suggest we do, Foster? I’m confident that neither one of us has a vaccine in our pockets that we could just pull out and inject ourselves with,” he spoke up, his eyes staring at the rocks near his feet. “And considering how long the eight of us have been infected for, I don’t think we have much time left. We could turn soon,” he finished that last part darkly._

_“I’m not going to let that happen.”_

_He along with the other seven individuals looked at her._

_“Don’t you worry, I’m going to figure something out and try to keep you guys alive until I get my hands on a vaccine. Or just make it myself if it ever comes to that,” she told them in a firm voice, her eyes glowing with so much determination that it made them feel at ease a little. “Tails. Loki...” she turned to the two, whose eyes lit up in attention. “I might need your help for whatever I’m gonna try to do when we get back to Earth.”_

_The two-tailed fox mobian silently nodded his head in understanding while the God of Mischief sighed_ **_something_ ** _in another language before he looked up and said “fine”._

_Jane turned back to look at the two black haired men, the long blonde haired woman with pigtails, and the floating doll standing next to Vergil._

_“I know you guys are probably anxious to get back home, but if you could just come back with us to Earth, I can properly monitor your guys’ health. And I can give y’all something if I see any changes occur,” she said then gave them a somewhat strained smile. “So, sorry for the inconvenience there, uhh...” she trailed off in a pause._

_The younger man with spiky hair noticed the troubled look on Jane’s face and decided to help her out._

_“It’s Jude...Jude Mathis,” he introduced himself with a small smile. “And it’s fine, Dr. Foster. I don’t have a problem with it,” Jude then looked at his three friends next to him. “I’m sure Wingul, Elize, and Teepo don’t have a problem with it either...if you were to ask them that.”_

_The older man with short hair and a single yellow bang closed his eyes._

_"No, I don’t have a problem with it.”_

_The woman with pigtails nodded in agreement._

_“Our health and safety should be our top priority now. How can we make it back home in one piece if we’re not cured yet? I’d rather go with you to Earth and get treated there, knowing that I’m in good hands, instead of waiting to get seen back at home in Reize Maxia and possibly risk the safety of my other friends and family.”_

_“Yeah! I agree with Elly, Featherneck, and Jude here!” the floating purple and pink doll spoke up._

_A small inaudible sigh left Jane. She didn’t think that they would cooperate with her so easily but she wasn’t complaining. This just made things a whole lot easier for her, in fact._

_“Alright, now call whoever you need to call if you can then meet me and the others up on the mountains there,” Jane pointed at said location above them._

_“Okay,” Jude nodded, watching Jane, Tony, Loki, Vergil, Lady, Tails, Shadow, Amy, Rouge, and Leon walk away from him and his little group._

**_xXXXXXXXXx_ **

_Before Jane knew it, thirty minutes had passed since she and the others left Jude and his friends to their privacy. Right now, they were sitting and chilling at the top of the mountain near the cave she and Sakura used before._

_“Dr. Foster.”_

_The young woman looked up to see Loki standing next to her, though his eyes were staring at something straight ahead of them instead of at her._

_“What?” she asked, getting to her feet right away._

_His green eyes flicked over to hers for a second._

_“They’re back,” he said, turning his attention forward again._

_She looked ahead and sure enough the young astrophysicist could see Jude and his group running up the trail, heading towards them at high speed._

_“Oh…” Jane turned to him with a look. “Thank you for letting me know that, Loki.”_

_A ghost of a smirk appeared on his face, but he, otherwise, said nothing and waited for the humans to reach them…_

_...Which did not take very long._

_“So...” Jane prompted, turning to face the group when they finally made it over to her and Loki’s side. “Did you get all of your calls out of the way?” her question silenced the chit-chatter going on behind them, and she heard everyone else come over to join them all._

_The group of four looked at each other then back at her._

_“Yeah. We’re ready,” Jude answered for everyone._

_Jane smiled._

_“Great! Now we can leave.”_

_Within the blink of an eye, Jane summoned_ _Mūnsutā and twirled it around for a bit..._

**_SWISH!_ **

**_SWOOOOOO!_ **

_...Before slashing at the air in front of them with the tip of the staff glowing grayish-white._

_“Okay! Great show there, Dr. Foster. But why did you...” Tony trailed off when a hole, an actual fucking portal, rippled into existence before his brown eyes. “Holy shit!” he suddenly blurted out in shock._

_This greatly surprised everyone else too except for the devil hunters._

_Jane smiled wider at the priceless look on Tony’s face, as well as Loki’s face, which she took great pride in throwing him off._

_“Well Tony, how else are we going to get back to Earth? My staff has the power to do stuff like this,” she then looked over to the half-devil who was looking off to the side and quietly yet idly tapping his sheathed weapon against his right boot. “Besides, it’s not like Vergil was gonna do it. And the only reason I say that is because he doesn’t even know the way back home from here to use his sword, Yamato, which can cut through time and space as well.”_

_“That’s...nice to know,” was all Tony responded with._

_Lady sighed._

_“I guess when you put it like that, you do make a good point,” she mumbled._

_“‘Course I do,” Jane stated, ignoring Vergil’s blatant stare, as she turned around and started walking over to the portal she made with her weapon, storing it away seconds later when she had no more use for the thing. “Now come on. Let’s go back to Mystic Ruins.”_

_“Right!” everyone behind her said._

_(_ **_END OF FLASHBACK SCENE_ ** _)_

* * *

**_BONK!_ **

“Ow!” Jane grabbed her head in pain and glared up at Vergil who was sitting Yamato back down on the ground next to him. “What the heck was that for?!” she barked at him with anger present in her voice.

The half-devil gave her an irritated look.

“I’ve been calling your name for the past three minutes.”

“Oh...” she blinked, removing her hands from her head, and turned away from him with a frown plastered on her face. ”Well you didn’t have to hit me. That hurt you know?”

Vergil withheld the urge to roll his eyes at the woman. Instead, he just gave her a look, the kind that spelled ‘he didn’t care’.

“I wouldn't have gotten your attention otherwise.”

Her frown darkened at those words, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw him reach for his sword and get up.

“Valentine sent me a text earlier saying that she’ll be here in the next thirty minutes or so. You can go do whatever in the meantime while I go meet up with her at the station.”

Then without another word, he walked away.

Jane sighed and rubbed her sore head.

‘ _He needs to loosen that stick some more out of his ass. Or take it out completely. Maybe I should leave that job to Nero and Lady? Because I know darn well that Dante isn’t going to do it anymore and I do not blame him one bit,_ ’ she shook her head with another sigh.

For the next two minutes, the young woman sat there in silence, just listening to the crashing waves of the ocean water below the cliff and the birds flying around and high above her in the sky, cawing and chirping in various ways to their hearts’ content. It was as if they were putting on a performance, and whether they were doing one or not didn’t matter. 

It all sounded like music to her ears.

And she loves music.

So she was fine with this, fine with the peaceful silence and their version of music.

‘ _Guess I’ll head back inside now._ ’

Jane carefully got to her feet, making sure not to trip and fall as she turned around and stepped over the railing. The young woman then looked at the house sitting on top of the other steep cliff up ahead and trekked her way over there.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

By the time she reached the steps leading up to Tails’ home, Jane saw Shadow and Loki standing outside near the door, talking to each other quietly. 

“Hey guys.”

The two looked up.

“Good Morning Jane Foster,” Loki greeted her with a nod.

“Are you heading back inside now?” Shadow asked, motioning his head at the door behind him and Loki.

Jane walked past them.

“I am,” she said over her shoulder right when she reached the door. “Oh and just to let you two know, my friend Jill Valentine will be stopping by to drop off some important stuff for the others. Vergil left to go meet up with her at the train station.”

Shadow inclined his head in response, letting her know that he heard her.

“Ah yes, we saw that from here,” Loki said, smiling.

Jane laughed under her breath a little before she twisted the knob on the front door, opened it, and walked inside.

“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that huh?” was the last thing she responded with before she shut the door closed behind her.


	16. Chapter 16

The house was quiet or as quiet as it could be despite the loud ceiling fan spinning rapidly above her seated position on the large sofa, blending in with the soft snores and sighs that bounced off the hollow walls of the living room. Thankfully the sounds didn't bother her. Because if they did, she would’ve left the room a long time ago.

But they weren’t, so she was fine.

Still, the sounds were making it quite difficult for her to distinguish which one began first and which one ended last. 

Too bad none of that was on her mind right now.

No, she was focused on something else. Her eyes were glued onto the words she was seeing on the little screen in front of her, deeply concerned with what they were telling her.

According to the thing she was reading, there have been sightings of an unknown monster flying all around the world and causing all sorts of trouble, ripping cities, towns, and villages apart with a freak storm that it conjured up. And as a result, hundreds of citizens have either gone missing, died in the attack, or lost their homes in the aftermath of the destruction.

It was horrifying really, to discover that the world had gone to hell while she and the others disappeared. If Jill hadn’t mentioned to her on the phone about the Devil May Cry Agency, Team Sonic, Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., G.U.N., B.S.A.A., and TerraSave being busy with something, then she wouldn’t have known.

And, if she hadn’t clicked on the first few articles that caught her attention ten minutes ago and read them all, then she still wouldn’t have known.

Sure, she would’ve been a little curious and a little suspicious as to why all of those organizations were working alongside each other on just this one thing, but she still would’ve been left in the damn dark on some things.

So yeah, it was a good thing that she decided to take the time now to look up what the hell was going on in the world.

' _Terrible. I hate this._ '

By the time she reached the end of the article, Jane was too tired to even want to read the next one she could see at the bottom. So with a heavy-filled sigh that was accompanied by the deep frown she could feel pulling at the corner of her lips, she swiped a finger across the screen, closing out of the tab right as her eyelids fluttered shut. 

Jane groaned and said, "What a mess..." in a mumble.

Feeling no more than a little drained by the news, and perhaps a little overwhelmed by her own emotions that got stirred up by said news, the young woman leaned forward so that she could sit her phone down on the coffee table in front of her. And once she did that, Jane fell back into the sofa, landing on a pile of pillows that felt like clouds and smelled like mint as she threw an arm over her face, muffling the moan-like sigh that suddenly slipped out a second later.

' _Somehow, I feel a tiny bit better after doing that now._ '

For the next ten minutes, she laid there in silence, mulling over the information in her head and enjoying the scent of the pillows wafting around her as she slowly but surely tuned out the sleeping group of individuals and Teepo, who was laying down on the other side of the sofa, nearby.

“Hey are they Jane?”

Feeling the spot next to her on the sofa shift, Jane cracked her eyelids halfway open and raised her head up a bit, immediately spying Tails who was in the midst of placing a ceramic white bowl filled with cereal that was already swimming in a bath of milk down on the table.

"Hi Tails," she greeted him and laid her head back down. Then without removing her arm, she looked past the two-tailed fox and the table and caught sight of the group still sleeping on the rug covered floor. Though to her surprise, one of them was sitting up in a cross-legged pose now, leaning against Jude’s back with his chin tucked in and his arms folded loosely over his chest.

' _Oh. It’s Wingul._ '

Despite the curtain of shoulder-length black hair falling over his extremely pale face, which hid the majority of his features from view, she knew that the young man was still sleeping soundly. The telltale signs of his breathing and snoring, light as they both were, gave it all away.

“Well, they’re all fine right now. No fever or anything. Still a little warm though,” Jane continued and looked away from Wingul and over to Tails who was in the process of eating his breakfast. “They stopped sweating in their sleep some time ago. Right around one or two this morning I wanna say,” she explained to him quietly. "But their complexion...it's still a little too pale for my tastes—from a medical standpoint, it doesn’t sound healthy at all I mean!" she corrected herself.

Tails took a moment to finish chewing his food before he put the spoon back in the bowl and sat it back down on the coffee table.

“Hmm...I guess that’s better than nothing then. It means we still have some time left to save them before they turn into zombies,” he said, his voice equally quiet. “Hopefully your friend Jill gets here soon.”

Her eyes flickered over to the fox mobian. 

“How did you—”

“I heard you outside when you were talking to Shadow and Loki.”

The young woman blinked. 

“Oh...” was all Jane said before she, ever so slightly, shrugged her shoulders and opened her eyes fully up. “Vergil told me she’ll be here in thirty minutes or so, but we’ll see,” she waved her hand and her laptop along with her notebook appeared in her lap. “In the meantime though, I’m going to finish transferring all of the notes I made on those meteorites I found back in the other world from my notebook to my computer. Or at least try to,” the young woman set aside the notebook as she opened her laptop and logged in.

Tails stared at the woman as she cracked open her notebook and flicked through the first few pages before stopping on the one she was looking for.

“Are you talking about those strange glowing rocks we used to get back to the swamp valley?” he inquired.

She smiled, nodding her head.

“Yep! I have one in my dimensional pocket right now. I took the meteorite so that I could study it some more—which I’ll do later on in the future whenever I have the time for it,” Jane replied as she looked up from the writing in her notebook then back down to her laptop and began typing away.

Tails nodded his head in understanding but didn’t say anything further as he picked up his bowl and went back to eating his cereal, leaving Jane to her work.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

A glint of steel shone radiantly under the rays of the morning light as it elegantly flipped through the air. The sharp object soar past the ledge of the rooftop, nearly nicking the wood in the process, until gravity took hold of it and brought it back down only to land in the palm of the raven haired god’s hand a few seconds later. 

‘ _Hmm..._ ’ he inspected the weapon for a few moments, turning it over and observed it from all sides, before he threw the thing back up into the air...

...And caught it again.

Rinse and repeat.

“Bored are you?” Shadow’s question tore him from his thoughts, right as he threw his dagger up for the sixth time even.

His eyes flickered over to the black and red mobian hedgehog sitting down on the porch steps in front of him, staring at the strange green gem in his right gloved hand with half-lidded eyes. 

“Well...” Loki began with a hum as he sat up from the bench he was laying on and caught the dagger just before it hit the porch floor. “I can ask the same for you, my friend,” he said, staring at the hedgehog’s back intently.

Shadow closed his eyes. 

“Hmph.” 

Loki raised a brow at the mobian’s response. 

“What kind of answer was that, hedgehog? Do you expect me to know what that ‘hmph’ even means?”

A small inaudible sigh escaped from Shadow as he stashed his prized Chaos Emerald away in his quills and placed his hands on the floor behind him, leaning back a little as he opened his eyes back up. 

“Alright, fine, I’m bored. Very bored,” he clarified for him, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the god’s insistence. “Even if I were to come up with something to do right now, I’ll still be bored out of mind by the time I’m done with it. Nothing will ever change that,” he said flippantly, as if he wasn’t feeling a little irritated on the inside, as if he wasn’t getting a little impatient from waiting out here on the porch for Jane’s friend and Vergil, and looked to his left, staring at the flickies flying low over the ocean in the distance. “Are you happy now Loki?” he asked despite himself.

Loki let out a quiet hum as he vanished his dagger away with a simple flick of his wrist and said, “You needn’t be so rude with me, Shadow. It was just an innocent question.”

“Innocent my a—”

“But yes, I see where you’re coming from and I agree with you,” he continued on, as if he didn’t cut off Shadow just like that. “The boredom will still be there, lingering in the back of our minds until it seeps into the front and destroys whatever’s left of our good mood. Terrible, isn’t it?” he finished with a dramatic sigh, turning away from the hedgehog, and stared at the mountains located to his right.

The conversation soon died down between the two after that. They weren’t exactly in the mood to continue talking and they didn’t have any other topics in mind that they could potentially discuss, so the two left it alone for now, deciding to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the weather. 

Unfortunately, that silence was soon broken by the pairs of footsteps approaching them, which was then followed up by a familiar baritone voice.

“I can see you two are dying from boredom just sitting there.”

The God of Mischief and the Ultimate Lifeform stood up from their seats and looked ahead to see Vergil stop in front of them.

This time, Shadow did roll his eyes. 

“We are...” he said in a blunt voice, completely ignoring the ‘are you serious’ look Vergil gave him, and turned his attention to the person who stopped right next to half-devil. It was a young woman dressed in tactical gear and blue and charcoal grey clothing. She had long platinum blonde hair that was pulled back into a single ponytail and had medium length bangs that stopped about an inch above her sky blue eyes. “You’re Jill Valentine, one of the eleven founders of the B.S.A.A. Organization,” he nodded at her in greeting. “I thought the reports and image we received about you and your comrades said that you had dark brown hair, not blonde hair. Is there any particular reason why you look different than before?” he crossed his arms, observing Jill for the moment with a curious tilt of his head.

Jill gave him a strained smile.

“Let's just say that a lot of things happened over the years. And some of them didn’t turn out to be a pleasant experience, but you know how it is with the type of work I do. It comes with the territory,” she explained with a small shrug of her shoulders.

Loki raised a brow at the woman.

“I assume changing your hair color turned out to be one of those things?” he asked, his voice curious.

A smile that looked somewhat cryptic in nature appeared on Jill’s lips when she turned her head in his direction.

“You could say that,” she said carefully and stared at Loki for a long time, which made him even more curious—and a tiny bit suspicious too. “You’re Loki, right? I’ve heard a lot of things about you from Jane and the Avengers.”

Although Loki was surprised to hear that Thor’s little girlfriend and mortal band of friends talked about him before—whenever he’s not around apparently, he didn’t let it show on his face. Instead, he gave the Midgardian woman a smile that made her narrow her eyes at him.

“Well I do hope they were good things!” he stepped forward and gently grabbed the young woman’s hand in his. He raised it up to his lips and gave it a small chaste kiss. “And yes, I am Loki of Asgard. God of Mischief, Lies, and Chaos. A pleasure to meet you, Miss Valentine!” he formally introduced himself, his eyes never leaving hers.

‘ _Charming,_ ’ Jill raised a high brow at the raven haired Asgardian, a bit unimpressed with his behavior and the look of mirth she could detect in his emerald green eyes. She wasn’t fooled by his act one bit. “Nice to meet you too, I guess,” the young woman replied dryly as she calmly removed her hand out of his and turned her attention back to Shadow. “Hey Shadow, is Jane inside? Awake?” she asked, pointing at the front door behind him and Loki.

Shadow looked at her and uncrossed his arms from his chest.

“Yes and yes,” he replied with a nod of his head. 

Jill sighed low to herself in relief.

“Oh good,” she said.

The dark hedgehog said nothing as he turned around and made his way over to the door, motioning her and the other two to follow him.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Right as Tails stepped out of the kitchen and entered the living room, after he just got done washing the dishes and putting them up in the dishwasher, he heard the front door open. And the two-tailed fox looked up to see Shadow, Jill, Loki, and Vergil walk in. 

“Welcome back you guys,” he said before looking at the blonde haired woman who was with them. “Hello!” he greeted her with a wave. “Jill, right?” 

“Hi!” Jill politely waved back. “And yes, I’m Jill.”

Catching sight of the familiar woman out of the corner of her eye, Jane stopped typing and sat her computer on the table. Then she got up from the couch and made a beeline towards her friend.

“Jill! It’s so good to see you again!” she gave the older woman a big hug.

Jill smiled down at the younger woman and returned the hug while the other three walked past them, heading over towards the couch.

“Nice to see you too, Jane,” she said, releasing the woman a second later, and held her by her shoulders, silently looking her over. But there was nothing to worry about seeing as she didn’t spot anything wrong with Jane, so the B.S.A.A. woman dropped her hands. 

‘ _She looks well rested for once. But I wonder..._ ’ 

Taking notice of the look on Jill’s face, Jane shook her head and said, “Hey c’mon, Jill. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. I’m not infected,” she gave the blonde haired woman a reassuring smile. However, that smile fell when she turned her head back and looked at the sleeping group. “They’re the ones who are infected and need to be cured from the virus,” she said in a quiet voice.

Jill followed the woman’s line of sight and stared at the group.

“Okay,” she nodded, schooling her features into a blank look as she turned away and dug her hand into the fanny pack that was tied around her waist to retrieve something.

Not taking her eyes off the group, Jane asked her friend, “Did you bring what I asked for?”

“Sure did. They're right here.”

Jane blinked when a pack of capped syringes, eight in total and filled with some type of neon purple liquid inside, appeared in her peripheral vision.

“Great!” she smiled, feeling more than relieved right now as Jill put them back in her fanny pack. “Thank god you brought enough vaccines with you. Now all we have to do is just administer them to the group.” 

Jill raised a brow at the younger woman.

“You told me to bring eight of them and so I did,” she pointed out with a smirk despite her voice sounding nonchalant. “Did you forget that already?”

“Touché,” Jane playfully rolled her eyes at her and laughed. “And no I didn’t.”

The two ladies walked over to Tails, Shadow, Vergil, and Loki who were standing around the sleeping group and staring at them.

When they approached, Vergil looked up and said, “We spotted some purple lines on the surface of their skin.”

Both women narrowed their eyes at this.

“When did they appear?” Jill inquired, her eyes still on the group. “Just now?”

“No,” Loki looked up as well. “They appeared about a minute ago,” he told her.

“Then we haven’t a moment to lose here,” Jane nodded at the two men in thanks, who then inclined their heads to her in response, and turned her attention to the owner of the house. “Tails, do you have another room that we could relocate these guys to? Preferably a room that’s bigger in size? And maybe cooler than this room?” she asked.

“I do,” he replied, his eyes straying over to one of his friends, and without warning, he bent down to pick Amy up.

“Can you lead us there, please?”

Tails stood up from the floor, shifting the pink hedgehog in his arms a little bit more comfortably as he did so, and turned on his heel.

“Sure! Grab the others and follow me,” he said over his shoulder to the group before walking away from them.

"Umm...what should we do with Teepo here?" came Jane's question.

"I'd say leave him here for now since he's still dead asleep," came Shadow's answer.

“I’m surprised these guys haven’t woken up by now...considering how loud we were and all.”

“They’re probably in a deep sleep too, just Teepo, but I am starting to get a little worried about their health now.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Their voices died down a little as the two-tailed fox entered the hallway. 

‘ _And_ _me three,_ ’ Tails said to himself in his head.

As he continuing walking down the hall, he spotted a stairway that led up to the second floor where his guest bedrooms and the balcony area were located at up ahead and another set of stairs past that one, peeking from around from the corner of the hall, which led to the basement floor where his man cave and his lab room were located at.

**_THUMP!_ **

His ears picked up the faint sounds of Jane and the others moving around and getting their friends off of the floor.

Before he could get too far though, Tails stopped in his tracks and waited for them to catch up.

Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long because he heard the sound of their footsteps coming up right behind him. And without a word, the fox resumed his walk down the hall.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

The new room they arrived in about a minute and a half later was indeed much larger and cooler than the living room area. 

The place was decked out with a lot of furniture that was scattered throughout the whole room and had posters of different celebrities and heroes on the dark blue walls that were organized in a neat manner, wooden shelves that were full of collectibles and robot figurines, all lined up in assembly formation. 

And lastly, there was a small fireplace located towards the far back, right near a huge TV stand that had a fifty inch flat screen sitting on top of it, and the stand was placed in-between two black game storage racks that were filled to the brim with video games, movies, and CD covers.

Overall, it was a very lovely room. 

It reminded them of a man cave. Or what you would see in a den.

“Over here.”

Jane and the others turned to see Tails walk over to one of the three sofas sitting up against the walls. 

“Just choose a couch to sit them down on. It doesn’t matter which one,” Tails said over his shoulder as he lowered Amy down on the middle one.

They went ahead and did just that. 

Jane and Vergil carefully sat Leon, Lady, and Elize down on the same couch that Amy was resting on while Shadow placed Rouge on the couch that was on the right side. Then Jill came up right behind him as he backed back away and placed Tony next to Rouge while Loki stepped up and dropped Jude and Wingul off on the final couch, which turned out to be the one on the left side.

When they finished, the group of five stepped back, stopping right next to Tails in the process.

“Okay...” Jill spoke up, catching their attention as she pulled out the pack of vaccines, including eight cotton balls that were already soaked in alcohol. “Do any of you, aside from Jane here, know how to give people injections?” she asked while handing two of the syringes and two of the damp cotton balls over to the young hybrid woman.

“I do,” Tails immediately replied.

“Yes,” Vergil simply said.

Shadow and Loki shook their heads no.

“Just the two of you then? That's fine,” Jill mumbled to herself before giving the two-tailed fox and the spiky haired half-devil four syringes and four damp cotton balls, two of each for them.

Next, she turned around and made her way over to Leon’s side, spying Tails, Vergil, and Jane walking over to their chosen individual’s side out of the corner of her eye.

“Now Shadow, I want you and Loki to watch how we do this carefully, alright?” she told the duo behind her while popping the cap off the syringe. Then she flicked it with a gentle finger to get all of the air bubbles out afterwards. “Here’s step one...” she began and grabbed the man’s arm with her free hand.

“Got it.”

"Go on."

“Now for step two, you do this...” Jill continued as she rolled up one of Leon’s sleeves and placed the cotton ball directly on his bare shoulder. Then she proceeded to rub that spot with it for a few seconds, and once she was done with that, the young woman sat the cotton ball on the table she saw in front of her and raised her syringe up. 

“Still watching?” she took a moment to look back at Shadow and Loki.

They silently nodded their heads.

“Good!” Jill turned back to Leon, “Here’s the third step then...” and without warning, she stuck the needle inside Leon’s shoulder.

Despite flinching, he did not stir one bit.

“And now for the final step...” Jill waited until the syringe was completely empty before she slowly pulled it out of the man’s shoulder and sat the needle on the table as well. “See, that’s how it’s done. Simple, isn’t it?”

“It is,” the two admitted quietly.

As she moved onto the next person, Jill could see Jane, Tails, and Vergil doing the same.

And when she looked down at the table, the young woman saw that all three syringes were empty and all three cotton balls had been used. 

In fact, all of it along with the caps were sitting not too far away from her stuff, which was good because everything would be right there in plain sight when it comes time for her to clean up.

' _Now it's Lady's turn,_ ' Jill said as she kneeled in front of the devil huntress.

For the next five minutes, Shadow and Loki watched the four continue the process of administering the vaccines to the infected individuals in silence. 

And before they knew it, the group was done.

All eight of the syringes and all eight of the cotton balls have been used. 

‘ _There. That should do it,_ ’ Jill wiped the invisible sweat off her forehead with her sleeve and turned to her friend.

Feeling the woman’s eyes on her, Jane looked up.

The two shared a smile before they looked back at the group of eight, watching the purple lines on their skin slowly fade away.

“And now...” Jane started in a low voice.

“We wait,” Jill finished the sentence for her.

After that, Jane and the other four went ahead to find somewhere to sit at while Jill cleaned up the mess they left behind on the table, wiping it down thoroughly with some disinfectant wipes she brought with her, and put all of the cotton balls, empty syringes, and their caps away in a large Ziploc bag that was going to be disposed of later when she goes back to the base.

“Jill!” came Jane’s voice.

The B.S.A.A. woman looked up after she threw away the wipes in a nearby trash can and put the bag away in her fanny pack to see her friend waving her over from her spot on the grey colored carpet next to the others.

They were all sitting down on the floor in front of the TV, watching a horror movie to be precise.

“You finished yet?” the young astrophysicist asked. 

“Yep!” Jill replied as she started making her way over towards the group. “So how many movies do you guys plan on watching?”

“A lot, apparently,” came Vergil’s immediate response.

“Oh jeez!”

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Some time in the evening, well after the movie marathon was over, half of the group had already left the room and went upstairs while the other half stayed behind to tidy up some things. 

Jane, who just got finished tossing a piece of paper in the trash, stopped right next to the couch on the left and checked on the group. 

Seeing as they were still fast asleep, along with the other individuals on the other two couches, the young woman looked away and leaned against the wall behind her back. Then she reached down into her pocket and took out her phone, checking to see if she received any text messages.

Before she turned on her phone though, the young scientist spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. 

‘ _Are they...?_ ’ Jane looked over to the couch in the middle to see Lady and Leon sit up with half-lidded eyes. ‘ _Yep! They are!_ ’ she smiled, putting her phone away for now, and moved off the wall to walk over to the two.

“Where—”

Jane stopped in front of them.

“You guys are still inside Tails’ house,” she cut off Leon, grabbing his and Lady’s attention. “But my friends and I moved all of y’all down here in the den area where it’s a bit cooler.”

“Guess that explains why I feel a tad bit cold right now,” Lady mumbled with a frown on her face.

Jane gave her an apologetic smile. 

“Err, yeah. Sorry about that.”

The devil huntress shook her head then waved her hand afterwards, reassuring the younger woman that it was fine. 

“Our bodies were getting too warm, so you moved us down here in hopes of bringing our body temperature down some,” Leon stated in realization. “Which it did. I honestly don’t feel like I’m being cooked in an oven anymore,” he joked, making Lady snort in amusement. “And I don’t feel like I’m dying either, which is strange. Did you...” he trailed off in surprise and gave Jane a knowing look.

Jane didn’t say anything other than giving him a smirk.

Lady immediately took notice of this.

“From the look on your face, I take it we’re all in the clear now?”

“Yes.”

All three of them turned to see Jill, the one who spoke up, and Tails walk over to them.

“When did you get here, Valentine?” Leon looked at the B.S.A.A. woman in confusion.

“I got here a couple of hours ago,” Jill told him as she and Tails stopped right next to Jane. She looked past the Government agent and Lady to see that the others were sitting up now, wide-awake and listening in to their conversation. “I called Jane two days ago to give her an update on things that had been going on around the world and she asked me to retrieve eight vaccines for her,” she continued her explanation. “I have to say though, you guys were cutting it a little too close there. If I hadn’t arrived here earlier today, all of you would’ve either turned by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest.”

Lady looked down and said, “And if that had happened, you would’ve shot a bullet or two in our heads.”

It wasn’t a question.

Jill knew this, but she still answered it like it was one.

“Yes.”

A few of them winced at that.

“Well...” Jude began in a calm voice despite himself. "I'm sure glad that it didn't have to come to that," he looked at the blonde haired woman and gave her a smile. “Thank you for saving us, uhh...”

Jill noticed his pause and the look of embarrassment on his face.

"Jill Valentine."

"Huh?" Jude blinked at her.

“My name is Jill Valentine,” she repeated, introducing herself to him and the others who didn’t know her ( _that being Wingul and Elize_ ), and looked at her friends standing next to her. “And as for saving you guys...technically, I wasn’t the only one who gave you the vaccines. These two along with Vergil, who’s not here at the moment, helped out too.”

Following her line of sight, the group of eight turned their attention to Jane and Tails.

“I see...” Tony and Wingul said in a low voice. “Thank you.”

“Thank you guys!” Jude, Elize, Rouge, and Amy bowed their heads in thanks at the young woman and two-tailed fox.

Leon and Lady nodded their heads in agreement.

“We appreciate it.”

Tails grinned at them. 

“No problem.”

“We were happy to help you all out,” Jane added softly. “Now...” she started to say as she moved past her friends, making her way over to the door. Once she reached it, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. “I don’t know about you guys but I’m getting pretty hungry, so I’m gonna head back to the living room and see if Shadow, Vergil, Loki, and Teepo came back with the food yet.”

At the mention of food, nearly everyone’s stomachs growled in unison, making more than a few of them turn pink in the face.

Tails, who already ate earlier, said nothing as he walked past all of them.

“Food does sound nice right about now,” Lady said in a painfully low and awkward voice that sounded strange to not only her ears but everyone else’s too. 

It was as if she was embarrassed or something. 

“We’ll come with you,” Jill told Jane, ignoring the urge to look at the devil huntress.

Jane nodded, stepping aside to let the fox mobian through as he left the room. 

“Okay. Let’s go.”

The young woman turned around and walked out the door with the others following not too far behind her.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Later on at night and some time after ten p.m....

“You make sure they’re well looked after, okay?”

Jane was right back in the same spot like she was this morning. Only this time, instead of sitting down with her back against the wooden railing with her feet dangling off the edge, she was standing a few feet away from the railing itself, with her head raised and the cool wind blowing softly behind her.

Although her eyes were glued onto the cluster of stars twinkling oh-so beautifully in the dark blue sky that had a faint purple-pink and golden orange hue to it, her body was slightly turned to the side, facing her friend who was standing next to her.

Jill, who was currently looking at the rest of the group standing outside near the garage door of Tails’ workshop building, turned to the younger woman.

“I will,” she gave her a solemn look. “I may work for the B.S.A.A., but I won’t let them treat Jude, Wingul, Elize, and Amy any differently just because they’ve been infected and cured from the T-virus,” she said in a strong voice and turned her attention to the late night sky as well. “They’ll be in good hands, Jane. I will make sure that nothing bad happens to them during their stay at HQ. And I’m sure Chris and the others will too. We’ll send them in rehabilitation and see how their health progresses from here on out,” she added in a whisper. Then a smile snuck its way onto her face as she thought of something amusing. “Besides, I have no doubt that Teepo would raise some hell if anything were to happen to his friends.”

Jane let out a laugh at that.

“Yeah! I believe he would do that,” she mumbled softly, tucking a stray piece of hair that had fallen out of place behind her pointed ear. “Speaking of getting looked after, did Leon, Lady, and Tony mention anything about going to B.S.A.A.’s headquarters too?” her eyes flickered over to the blonde haired woman as she asked this.

Jill furrowed her brows in thought. 

“Oh that’s right. You did step out after dinner to take a phone call and missed what we discussed at the dinner table earlier,” she murmured to herself before turning her eyes over to Jane. “They did actually,” she answered the younger woman’s question. “Some time next week, they’re going to meet me there halfway in the UK after they take care of some things with their group or superiors first.”

“Good,” Jane nodded in understanding.

The two ladies turned back to the sky and fell quiet after that. 

It wasn’t until the sky turned a darker blue, about ten minutes later in fact, that someone came over to their side. 

“The Fox is getting ready to leave with Rose, Jude, and his friends in the X-Tornado soon. They’re just waiting for you now.”

Hearing the footfalls of shoes trudging lightly in the dirt stop somewhere behind them, the two turned around to Shadow standing ten feet away with his arms crossed over his chest, looking right at Jill.

“I understand,” Jill said with a nod of her head. “Thank you for telling me, Shadow.”

Shadow said nothing and bowed his head in a slight nod before he turned on his heel, uncrossed his arms, and started walking away with the two ladies right behind him.

The three reached the workshop in no time at all and stopped right next to everyone else who were watching the palm trees move back to let what looked like an airfield rise up from the ground. Then seconds later, the garage door to the workshop opened up and a massive white, red, and gold aircraft called the X-Tornado pulled out.

As soon as it came to a stop in front of the group, the door to the main cockpit located at the front of the plane opened up to reveal Tails sitting down inside. 

“Hey!” the two tailed-fox stuck his head and arm out and waved at Jill, Jude, Elize, Wingul, Teepo, and Amy. “C’mon you guys! Get in!”

Said group of six looked towards the center of the plane and saw a door to the secondary cockpit open up. 

And from what they could see, there was a row of seats lined up inside, six in total and paired up in twos. 

“Looks like the Fox made some changes to it,” Shadow commented as he watched the six individuals carefully climb ( _though in Teepo’s case he floated_ ) up the X-Tornado to get to the cockpit.

Jane raised a brow. 

“Is that so? How many seats did he originally have in the second cockpit?” she asked, trying to think back to the battle of New York’s invasion where she got her first glimpse at the plane, taking out some of the aliens in the sky alongside Iron Man and a few others, on TV.

“Two, but they weren’t lined up like this,” Shadow answered. 

Jane’s eyes flashed with understanding. 

“Ah,” was all she said.

“Maybe he wanted to make more room for transporting people or objects or something?” Lady guessed.

Shadow grunted in response.

“Good-bye friends!” Teepo’s voice cut through their conversation.

The three of them along with Loki, Tony, Leon, Vergil, and Rouge looked up to see all six of their companions now seated in the plane.

“Bye you guys! See you around some other time!” Jane said as she and the other seven waved at them before the main and secondary cockpit doors shut closed.

Everyone stepped back some as the X-Tornado came to life with a bright yellow flash and a **_vroom_** before it slowly moved forward, steadily picking up speed the further it traveled until the aircraft finally reached the end of the airfield. Then in a sudden burst of speed, it blasted off into the night sky with a sonic boom, becoming no more than a mere white dot amongst the stars a second later.

The group of eight waited until the X-Tornado was completely out of sight before they turned to each other.

“So...is anyone else here leaving tonight?” Jane couldn’t help but ask.

Loki cleared his throat to get their attention, and once he had it, he said, “Yes. I believe Stark and I should head back to New York right now and check in with the Avengers since we’ve stayed here in Mystic Ruins long enough.”

“Oh yeah, and I’m sure there’ll be chaos waiting for us when we get back in town,” Tony added with a snort.

Jane along with Vergil, Lady, and Shadow rolled their eyes at the new look on the God of Mischief’s face. There was no doubt in their minds that Loki would find the chaos awaiting for him and Tony back at home amusing. In fact, they were so sure that he would get a kick out of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. yelling at them.

“Okay. Take care, you two,” Jane said to them.

The two men turned to Jane.

“Same to you, Dr. Foster!” Tony gave her a grin.

Loki on the other hand smiled and politely bowed his head at her.

“Until we meet again, my dear,” he said in a soft voice, smirking a bit on the inside at the pink blush and the look of surprise mixed with confusion on Jane’s face. “Perhaps in a more...normal setting so to speak? When there’s no danger around of course!” he raised his head back up and cocked it to the side, the smile still on his face.

“Umm...sure...I guess,” was the only answer she was able to give him.

Tony, who decided not to think about what just happened there, and Loki, who now dropped the smile from his face, turned to the others and said their good-byes before walking away.

“Actually, I think Shadow and I are going to do the same,” Rouge spoke up.

“You’re not staying for the night?” Lady questioned, her voice sounding confused.

“No,” Shadow replied, his eyes focused somewhere behind them.

Everyone else turned around to see the raven haired god and the brown haired man standing by the stairway. But instead of walking down the rocky steps, Loki turned to Tony, summoning his magic as he did so, and grabbed his arm. 

Then without warning, the two disappeared from the spot in a flash of green light.

“Huh, that was quick,” Leon said in a mumble.

“Yes...but if there’s an efficient way to get around from place to place much quicker and people have the means to do so, then they will use it to their full advantage,” Vergil pointed out.

“And it makes things less of a hassle for them. The people who can teleport at will won’t have to worry about the time when they can just simply cut it short,” Lady added, agreeing with the half-devil’s statement as she turned her attention back to Shadow and Rouge. “Are you two leaving via Chaos Control?” she asked.

“Yes,” Rouge answered her while Shadow pulled his Chaos Emerald from out of his quills.

Jane, who finally managed to get her damn blush under control and completely will it away, smiled at the two.

“Well, it was nice meeting you two in person after hearing so much about you and your friends,” she put her hand out to the bat mobian.

Rouge reached out and took it.

“Right back at you, Jane,” she told the woman, shaking her hand and released it afterward.

Then to her surprise, Shadow stepped up and lightly shook Jane’s hand with his free one.

“See you around next time maybe?” Jane asked, hopefully, once the hedgehog released her hand and stepped back, taking his place next to Rouge.

Shadow shrugged his shoulders. 

“Maybe,” he parroted with a smirk, his eyes locking with Rouge’s when she took a hold of his arm. He then turned to Vergil, Lady, and Leon, nodding his head at them in silent good-bye before he raised his hand that had the emerald in it.

“Chaos Control!”

A flash of greenish-white light enveloped the two mobians whole, making the group of four close their eyes. And when it died down five seconds later, they opened them back up to see the G.U.N. agents no longer there.

“Well I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to head back inside now and then get ready for bed so that I can head back home early tomorrow morning.”

“Good idea.”

Leon and Lady started making their way over to the house.

Vergil on the other hand gave Jane a side look.

“Are you staying out here or heading back inside with them?”

Jane’s eyes flicked over to his.

“I’m gonna stay out here for a while and wait for Tails to get back,” she said to him and then asked, “What about you? Are you gonna stay out here too?”

Vergil shook his head.

“No, I’m heading back in the house as well.”

Jane nodded.

“Alright, I’ll see you inside soon,” she watched him walk away.

The young woman waited until her friend was back inside the house to act upon what she said she was going to do. 

And that is to wait for Tails.

“Guess I’ll watch the stars to pass the time for a bit,” she said in a sigh and walked away from the workshop, heading over towards the same spot she left earlier. “Hopefully he’ll be back before midnight.” 

The young woman grew quiet as soon as she reached the cliffside. Then without a word, she jumped over the railing and took a seat at the edge, leaning back against the wooden structure afterwards as she raised her head up to the sky. 

‘ _I like the sky at night here. You can practically see everything in sight since it’s so clear._ ’

Jane soon became lost within her thoughts as she stared at the stars twinkling brightly in the moonless night blue sky with a soft look and a smile on her face.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

One hour later...

**_SWOOOOSH!_ **

The X-Tornado shot out of one of the clouds in the sky with a slight twirl.

‘ _I finally made it back._ ’

Tails smiled when he spotted the island down below.

Eager to get back home, the two tailed fox increased his speed, grinning as he did so. He made the X-Tornado do a semi-nose dive until it reached the airfield and pulled up, skirting across the land for a bit until the aircraft stopped about a foot-and-a half away from the workshop.

“Home sweet home,” he said as the door to the building automatically opened up, and he slowly steered the plane inside, not looking back to see the airfield disappear underground and get replaced by a dirt covered ground that hid it. 

After that, Tails opened the cockpit door and jumped out, landing on the wing of the plane a second later. Before he got off the aircraft though, he turned to the cockpit and shut the lid closed. “I should probably head inside and get the guest rooms ready for everyone,” the two-tailed fox mumbled out loud as he flew away and closed the garage door on his way out.

The second he made it out of the building, however, the young mobian spotted something on the ground near the cliffside that had the wooden railing around it.

“Huh?” 

Tails looked down to see the seated figure of Jane Foster watching the stars.

“Hey Jane!” 

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Jane blinked then looked up at the sound of someone calling her name to see Tails flying towards her. The young woman stood her from her seat and moved away from the edge of the cliff.

“Oh! You’re back, Tails!” she waved at him before letting out a small yawn.

Once the two tailed-fox landed in the middle of the cliffside, he turned around and saw Jane making her way over to him.

“Were you waiting for me?” at the slight nod of her head, he continued, “You didn’t have to, you know!” he told the woman when she came to a complete stop in front of him.

“I know but I wanted to,” she responded before making a gesture at the sky behind her. “The view on this side of the world was also nice to look at too.”

Tails knew what she was referring to and smiled in agreement at that.

“It is...” he trailed off before taking a closer look at Jane, noticing the way she held herself up with half-lidded eyes. The poor woman looked as if she was about to fall asleep right then and there on the spot if she didn't get inside of the house right now. “You looked tired,” he stated matter-of-factually with his hands on his hips.

Before she could open her mouth, Tails grabbed her hand and dragged them both over to his house. 

“You are tired, Jane. Don’t you dare even deny it.”

Jane blinked and yawned again, much to her disappointment. 

“I...guess I am,” she resigned with a low sigh when the two of them made it to the door, letting out a third yawn as the two-tailed fox released her hand. “Oh yeah…” she began, grabbing his attention. “Loki, Tony, Shadow, and Rouge went home earlier.”

“And the others?” he asked curiously.

“Inside and getting ready for bed probably,” she answered him, her voice sounding extremely tired even to her own ears.

“Alright,” he said. “Thank you for letting me know.” 

“You’re welcome,” she mumbled back.

Tails opened the door and turned to her. 

“After you, Jane.” 

Jane nodded at him in thanks before making her way inside sluggishly.

Tails went in after her and shut the door closed, locking it behind him afterwards.


End file.
